Author Topic: Popup Translator Shootout? (Read 26,389 times)

David.P · « **on:** May 27, 2010, 08:37 AM »

Hi forum,

I just stumbled upon a few amazing online/text popup translator tools like Lingoes, Google Translate Client, StarDict and Dictionary.NET.

At the moment, I'm totally overwhelmed that tools like these have existed for some time without me having noticed

I'm still far from being able to tell which of these tools might be the best (probably there are even more such tools out there..)

Thus, maybe someone else is already closer to make a conclusion, or a little shootout, between the most popular -- or the most advanced -- (popup) translator tools?

Thanks already
Cheers David.P

joby_toss · « **Reply #1 on:** May 27, 2010, 12:38 PM »

I like this: http://translateclient.com/

David.P · « **Reply #2 on:** May 27, 2010, 08:30 PM »

Here's a short overview of all the tools mentioned initially, and some more.

http://www.gigglecomputer.com/2009/10/10-best-free-tools-to-learn-foreign.html

Cheers David.P

David.P · « **Reply #3 on:** May 27, 2010, 09:31 PM »

OK, for the moment, TranslateClient is the clear winner for me. It is fast, small and has easy accessible functions for replacing text with the translation result (must-have feature).

TranslateClient, Main

TranslateClient, Popup

Lingoes must be one of the most overbloated tools I have ever seen (for my taste). It probably takes weeks to set up everything that's there. What's more, it has no replace-translation-result function (or I can't find it in the zillion options).

Lingoes, Main

Lingoes, Popup

Stardict seems to have lots of options as well. However I can't seem to find where to simply setup Google as translation source (instead of downloading "hundreds" of dictionaries from their forum). Further, it seems to use for whatever reason, a chinese font, and I can't find how to change that. Then, the popup seems to be very hard to trigger reliably. Last, no replace function either

Stardict, Main

Stardict, Popup

Dictionary.NET is a tiny standalone that does its job. However, the font is too small for my taste, and (again) no replace text function

Dictionary.NET, Main/Popup

Looking forward to everyone else's experiences,
Cheers David.P

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** May 27, 2010, 09:36 PM »

Very nice thread

David.P · « **Reply #5 on:** May 27, 2010, 09:52 PM »

Thanks mouser

Curt · « **Reply #6 on:** May 27, 2010, 10:09 PM »

really fine mini-test/review :-)

Can you tell about the PRO version of your favourite, please?

David.P · « **Reply #7 on:** May 28, 2010, 09:58 AM »

Thanks Curt.

Quote from: Curt on May 27, 2010, 10:09 PM

Can you tell about the PRO version of your favourite, please

I haven't tried the PRO version myself. The main differences seem to be Wikipedia access and the ability to install additional dictionaries locally.

Btw, in the meantime, I've found some more great features of TranslateClient. For example, in the main window, TranslateClient translates continuously as you type. Additionally, the translation result is automatically and continuously updated in your clipboard. What's more, if you get multiple translation results, you simply highlight your preferred result, click on the "Replace" button, and only the highlighted text will be transferred to your source document.

Enjoy,
Cheers David.P

[edit for broken link]

David.P · « **Reply #8 on:** May 29, 2010, 02:53 PM »

... has anyone already found out how this popup trigger method by TranslateClient actually works:

If I right click anywhere, of course what I get is the normal application context menu, not a translation by TranslateClient.

[edit] oops, it is left click

But still, no translation if I select text and left click on it...

yksyks · « **Reply #9 on:** May 29, 2010, 09:52 PM »

The same here. The 1st and 3rd options work well, the 2nd one does nothing. (Tried in Opera, Notepad, MS Word.)

app103 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 30, 2010, 02:17 PM »

There is also Fried Babelfish which was a NANY 2009 submission from Krishean and myself, that is fairly simple, has 2 tabs for easily switching between 2 languages (good for doing 2-way stuff a lot quicker), it's portable, and uses Google Translator, which means it has that auto-detect language feature, useful when you have no idea what language the text you want to translate is in. (does require internet access to make it work)

It doesn't automatically copy to the clipboard, but that is something I am planning on adding at some point. I'd like to make it useful for 2-way translating of chat room text, for use with any chat client. This might not be a feature I add in the near future, though.

The Delphi/javascript source is included, if you (or anyone else) feels like improving it.

kalos · « **Reply #11 on:** September 14, 2010, 04:16 PM »

is there a translator that will search for the text under the cursor or the highlighted/selected text in a webpage dictionary that we have specified and show the result from there?

thanks

David.P · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2012, 09:22 AM »

Since I just couldn't get my former favorite "TranslateClient" to work properly AT ALL unfortunately (especially regarding the hotkey activation), I just identified QTranslate, which seems to work really well. I also like the standard hotkey "Double Ctrl."

This has a lot of potential to become my favorite popup translator!

Cheers David.P

tomos · « **Reply #13 on:** May 10, 2012, 10:18 AM »

hi David, sounds good.

couple of queries:

1. what exactly is double Ctrl ? (pressing the two Ctrl keys simultaneously? or tapping it?)
2. do you know are the hotkeys customisable?

thanks, Tom

David.P · « **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2012, 10:24 AM »

Hi Tom,

ad 1.) you press Ctrl two times (quickly)
ad 2.) yes!

Hth,
Cheers David

tomos · « **Reply #15 on:** May 10, 2012, 10:36 AM »

Quote from: David.P on May 10, 2012, 10:24 AM

ad 1.) you press Ctrl two times (quickly)
ad 2.) yes!

Hth,

yes, now it sounds even better

daddydave · « **Reply #16 on:** May 10, 2012, 12:15 PM »

Quote from: David.P on May 10, 2012, 09:22 AM

Since I just couldn't get my former favorite "TranslateClient" to work properly AT ALL unfortunately (especially regarding the hotkey activation), I just identified QTranslate, which seems to work really well. I also like the standard hotkey "Double Ctrl."

This has a lot of potential to become my favorite popup translator!

Cheers David.P

I usually am not interested in this category of software, but this is indeed pretty slick. It seems to have picked up my Firefox cookies, because it auto-detected that I wanted to translate into Hindi.

By the way, Double Ctrl was my old FARR shortcut. Actually I think I used to use Double Left Ctrl for Launchy and Double Right Ctrl for FARR, now I don't have Launchy installed and just stick with the FARR default.

David.P · « **Reply #17 on:** May 10, 2012, 01:00 PM »

Curt · « **Reply #18 on:** May 10, 2012, 03:56 PM »

Quote from: David.P on May 10, 2012, 09:22 AM

Since I just couldn't get my former favorite "TranslateClient" to work properly AT ALL

Quote from: TranslateClient

According to a new Google policy, after December 2011 Google Translation will be available only in the Pro version.

David.P · « **Reply #19 on:** May 10, 2012, 04:00 PM »

That was not the reason -- TranslateClient would just pop up at random intervals and get in my way.

OTOH that new TranslateClient Pro Policy is annoying anyway.

yksyks · « **Reply #20 on:** June 10, 2012, 05:43 AM »

The QTranslate is a fantastic tool. Thanks for heads-up. I especially appreciate the instant "Back translation" feature, it's very useful to make sure the machine "got" your sentence right.

There's also a new version available (3.5.0).

cyberdiva · « **Reply #21 on:** June 10, 2012, 01:19 PM »

I used to be very enthusiastic about Google's TranslateClient. It seemed to me much better than anything else I tried. When Google announced that TranslateClient would be available only in a Pro version, I bought it. Alas, for some reason that I don't understand, its translation ability seems to have deteriorated. Surprisingly often it gives me a literal (mis)translation that has little to do with the meaning. I can't offhand think of an example, but it has happened quite a bit. Also, it now gives me the option of trying Microsoft's translations (both options appear on the interface), and Microsoft's usually reminds me that there are worse translators than Google.

There are some other issues, too, including the possibility that its use may be limited to a certain total number of characters (not per translation, but in all translations). I just noticed this and will ask tech support about it.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #22 on:** June 10, 2012, 01:50 PM »

Quote from: kalos on September 14, 2010, 04:16 PM

is there a translator that will search for the text under the cursor or the highlighted/selected text in a webpage dictionary that we have specified and show the result from there?

I realize that this question is from 2010, but in reading through the thread today I came upon it. I thought I'd mention that if I highlight some text in my browser (I tried it in both Firefox and Opera) while Google TranslateClient Pro is open, a blue G will appear next to the passage I've highlighted. If I click on the G, I'll get a translation into Spanish (since that's the language I most often translate to/from), though I can choose other possibilities. (Often, there's not just a G but GWS. If I choose W, it will search for the highlighted term in Wikipedia, while S will make it search for the highlighted passage in one of several search engines.) Also, I see that there's a tiny icon that lets me hear the words I've highlighted. Pretty neat, though I use Google TranslateClient Pro primarily to help me write in Spanish, and I still feel that its ability to translate from English into Spanish and vice versa has deteriorated since the time the program was free.

yksyks · « **Reply #23 on:** June 10, 2012, 01:54 PM »

Wow, that's funny: I just had a look at the Client for Google Translate, and it currently offers a free version that supports only "translation from Microsoft Translator". Nice, isn't it?

Anyway, QTranslate's capability to quickly switch between different services, along with the back translation window seems to be unbeatable at the moment. Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on the language pair. I'm using Portuguese/English, and Google is usually a bit better than Microsoft, but not always. Also the Prompt service gives sometimes valuable results (and sometimes a complete nonsense).

app103 · « **Reply #24 on:** June 10, 2012, 04:44 PM »

Quote from: yksyks on June 10, 2012, 01:54 PM

Wow, that's funny: I just had a look at the Client for Google Translate, and it currently offers a free version that supports only "translation from Microsoft Translator". Nice, isn't it?

That's because the Google Translate API is no longer available for free. Developers can not develop apps using it unless they are willing to pay Google. Not likely you will find very many freeware developers that are willing to pay Google and then give away the app for free. I sure wasn't willing to do that, which is why Fried Babelfish no longer works.