LibreOffice extension¶

The Dragomand extension for LibreOffice translates the selected text in Writer offline, through the Dragomand daemon. It adds a Translate submenu to the Tools menu, a Translate toolbar and a language chooser, keeps links and character formatting through the translation, and picks the direction from the language Writer has set on the text.

It is developed as its own project, dragoman-libreoffice, and for now it is only distributed as a file on its GitHub releases: it is not in the LibreOffice extension site or in distribution repositories yet. Installing it takes three steps: make sure Dragomand and LibreOffice's Python support are installed, download the extension file, and add it to LibreOffice.

Requirements¶

Dragomand. The extension does no translation itself: it calls dragomanctl, which starts the daemon on demand. Install the dragomand package first, as described on the Install page, and check that it works:

dragomanctl translate -f bg -t en "Добро утро"

LibreOffice from your distribution. Use the LibreOffice packaged by your distribution. The Flatpak and Snap builds run in a sandbox that cannot start programs installed on the system, so the extension cannot reach dragomanctl from inside them.

Python scripting for LibreOffice. The extension is written in Python, which some distributions package separately from LibreOffice:

sudo apt install libreoffice-script-provider-python

sudo dnf install libreoffice-pyuno

sudo zypper install libreoffice-pyuno

Without it, adding the extension fails with an error: LibreOffice cannot load its Python part.

Download¶

Open the latest release and download dragoman-libreoffice-<version>.oxt, for example dragoman-libreoffice-0.0.1.oxt. Each release also carries a .sha256 file for checking the download. From a terminal:

version=0.0.1
base=https://github.com/VuteTech/dragoman-libreoffice/releases/download/v$version
curl -LO "$base/dragoman-libreoffice-$version.oxt"
curl -LO "$base/dragoman-libreoffice-$version.oxt.sha256"
sha256sum -c "dragoman-libreoffice-$version.oxt.sha256"

The last command must print OK.

Install¶

Pick one of the two ways. Both install the extension for your user only.

With the Extensions dialog¶

1. Start LibreOffice (any module, for example Writer).
2. Open Tools, then Extensions (called Extension Manager in older LibreOffice versions).
3. Click Add, select the downloaded .oxt file and confirm.
4. Close the dialog and restart LibreOffice when it offers to, or close every LibreOffice window and start it again.

The Extensions dialog now lists "Dragomand offline translation" with its version.

From a terminal¶

Close every LibreOffice window first, then run:

unopkg add dragoman-libreoffice-0.0.1.oxt

and check the result:

unopkg list | grep -A1 dev.l10n_bg.dragomand.libreoffice

It prints the extension's identifier and version.

To install it for every user of the machine instead, add --shared and run the command as root: sudo unopkg add --shared dragoman-libreoffice-0.0.1.oxt.

Using it¶

Open a Writer document, select some text and choose Tools, then Translate, then Translate selection. The translation replaces the selection.

• Translate selection (choose languages)... first opens a dialog with every available language by name, then translates with the chosen pair. The pair is saved in ~/.config/dragomand/libreoffice.json; until you choose one, it is Bulgarian to English.
• Swap translation direction reverses the saved pair.
• The direction follows the document. "Translate selection" reads the language Writer has set on the selected text (the one the spelling checker uses, set under Format, then Character, then Language). Text in the saved source language translates as saved, text in the saved target language translates the other way, and any other recognized language translates into the saved target.
• Formatting survives. Links, bold and italic are carried onto the translated words.
• The toolbar. In the standard interface, enable it under View, then Toolbars, then Translate. In the Tabbed interface the three commands are buttons in the Extension tab.

The first translation in a language pair downloads its model from Mozilla, which takes a few seconds; LibreOffice waits meanwhile. After that the pair works offline. To avoid the download altogether, install the pair's model package (see Language models).

Updating¶

Download the new release and install it the same way. Adding a newer version through the Extensions dialog or with unopkg add replaces the installed one; there is no need to remove it first. LibreOffice's own "Check for Updates" does not know about these releases, so watch the releases page (GitHub can notify you: "Watch", then "Custom", then "Releases").

Removing¶

In the Extensions dialog select "Dragomand offline translation" and click Remove, or close LibreOffice and run:

unopkg remove dev.l10n_bg.dragomand.libreoffice

The saved language pair stays in ~/.config/dragomand/libreoffice.json; delete that file too for a clean removal.

Development builds¶

Every change to the extension's master branch is built automatically. Signed-in GitHub users can download these builds from the Actions tab: open a run, then download the artifact at the bottom of the page. It is a .zip holding the .oxt. Their versions look like 0.0.1.3 (three changes after 0.0.1), so they install over the release they follow, and the next release installs over them.

Troubleshooting¶

Adding the extension fails with an error (unopkg failed, or an error in the Extensions dialog). Python scripting for LibreOffice is missing: install it (see Requirements), then add the extension again.

There is no Translate submenu. Restart LibreOffice completely: close every window, including the Start Center, and check that no LibreOffice process is left running. If the menu is still missing, check that the Extensions dialog lists the extension as enabled.

"dragomanctl not found: is the dragomand package installed?" The extension cannot find dragomanctl. Install Dragomand, and use your distribution's LibreOffice rather than the Flatpak or Snap build.

"select some text first". Select text in a Writer document before choosing Translate selection.

The first translation is slow or times out. The first use of a pair downloads its model. Check the network, or install the pair ahead of time with dragomanctl install bg-en (or its model package), then try again.

The wrong language comes out. Check the language Writer has set on the text (Format, then Character, then Language): the direction follows it. "Translate selection (choose languages)..." sets the pair used for everything else.

For problems with the daemon itself, see Troubleshooting.