been looking for a car workshop manual for my motor and have found a pdf file online with 900 pages but the text is in Spanish

is there a way to convert it to English and keep the same format ?

Getting PDF to text first is a minor miracle. From there, hoping to get something that will keep the format is a tougher find. It also depends on whether you are willing to pay for the service. Adobe Reader now offers conversion, but it's not free. Check here for free solutions:

http://www.freewaregenius.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-word-doc-for-free-a-comparative-test-2/

The issue of how hard it is to get a PDF to text depends on whether your PDF is in text format or scanned images. If it is text, it is also critical whether the font information was saved. It not, you just get gibberish from it. I ended up using a paid solution (Tipard) because of frequent docs that were in scanned format or without font data, and also for Thai support, but Spanish is commonly available in free software.

OmniPage SE came with my Canon printer. It does OCR with format preservation, but I'm not sure if it does Spanish or can work from a PDF rather than a physical book.

Once you get Spanish text out of your PDF, you will have to run it through Google Translate to get English text (copy/paste relevant sections). This will be tedious for something as large as a book. You will probably have to just translate pages as needed for whatever you are trying to accomplish, or find a Spanish friend to help you with reading the book.

Why not ask the manufacturer for a manual in English? I got my triton one in English on a cd from mitsubushi!

Check here: http://www.manualslib.com/

Maybe they have what you need already and in English?

Why not ask the manufacturer for a manual in English? I got my triton one in English on a cd from mitsubushi!

Its not a "simple" manual but a "car workshop manual" for his "motor".

A different thing and guess much more difficult to get (if I understood right).

900 (!) pages in PDF in the "wrong" language.

Don't want to spoil the mood, but wish you good luck. A task for days or weeks.

And the vocabulary in such a manual is very specific/special.

Google translate might create its well known "funny" results.

I had a hard time to translate/find terms for automotive terms in Thai and vice/versa.

(trying to understand the inspection checklist e.g.)

Even if things run smooth I guess you will need about an hour per page to get a useful/readable English version.

Maybe less if the amount of text is small compared to pictures/drawings etc.

900 hours as worst case.

You really need to translate the whole thing?

Getting PDF to text first is a minor miracle. From there, hoping to get something that will keep the format is a tougher find. It also depends on whether you are willing to pay for the service. Adobe Reader now offers conversion, but it's not free. Check here for free solutions:

http://www.freewaregenius.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-word-doc-for-free-a-comparative-test-2/

The issue of how hard it is to get a PDF to text depends on whether your PDF is in text format or scanned images. If it is text, it is also critical whether the font information was saved. It not, you just get gibberish from it. I ended up using a paid solution (Tipard) because of frequent docs that were in scanned format or without font data, and also for Thai support, but Spanish is commonly available in free software.

OmniPage SE came with my Canon printer. It does OCR with format preservation, but I'm not sure if it does Spanish or can work from a PDF rather than a physical book.

Once you get Spanish text out of your PDF, you will have to run it through Google Translate to get English text (copy/paste relevant sections). This will be tedious for something as large as a book. You will probably have to just translate pages as needed for whatever you are trying to accomplish, or find a Spanish friend to help you with reading the book.

"You will probably have to just translate pages as needed for whatever you are trying to accomplish"

the pages in the pdf will copy and paste so i will just do that as and when needed

thanks to those who took the trouble to reply

With ABBYY finereader you can convert the PDF files to word, and then can run them through Google translate.

Reading the above it might be easier and quicker to learn Spanish ... yes I know a stupid useless comment ...sorry.

What " motor"?