It is a good idea to have as many tools as possible in your arsenal when working on the Web these days. There are several products on the market in the area of translation software. Most have some award or another attached to them as well. Some work with microphones and dictation, most work with text editors and word processors.


I needed a product to translate text for reports and Web pages. I had seen several presentations at trade shows like Comdex and Internet world. Most are in the $100.00+ price range and include various different perks for the price. I went to CompUSA and compared several different products on the shelf and ended up purchasing Easy Translator 3. It came with a $20.00 rebate and a price of $40.00. The description on the package indicated that it contained everything I needed and desired. I didn't need a voice product.

First thing about the product is that the user must choose the specific section or phrase to be translated. It is not possible to just open a document and select a command. I highlighted a 7 page document and hit translate. The entire process only took a little while, and the translated document appeared. The entire formatting had been changed. I later went back and translated the document again but only a phrase or a paragraph at a time, this maintained the formatting as desired.

I then had someone fluent in Spanish check the document that had been translated from English. Much to my amazement, about 20% of the translation was found to be completely incorrect and non-faithful to the original. Brown was translated to maroon, as well as other simple mistakes. This was not what I expected from an award winning product. For the price, though, I am glad it wasn't worse!



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