I cannot copy/paste from TextEdit to OS X's language translator - help!

I copied 10 pages of text from a PC game walkthrough that's written only in Italian, and first, I tried d/l apple's free language translator widget for my OS X's dashboard, tried to copy this Italian text from my TextEdit document that I saved it on, and paste it into this widget, but it wouldn't do anything. Then I saw (as I discovered for the first time since I got my MBP a year ago) my array of dashboard widgets, including the built-in language translator of OS X. Next, I again tried to copy/paste this Italin text onto my OS X's built-in translator, but still nothing happened.

How exactly am I supposed to use these language translators with this text?
Step-by-step, please?

Please bear with me, I'm still learning how to use the marvels of a mac, I'm a first time mac user, having gotten my first mac a year ago..

Thanks in advance.

You may want to try Google's translator instead.

I'm not at my usual computer with the translator widget, but I remember trying to translate a page of German text, and the widget wouldn't do it. It would handle short phrases, a sentence maybe, but a page of text seemed to stall it.

hughvane said:

You may want to try Google's translator instead.

Click to expand...

Where do I get Google's translator? Is it free? How do I use it?