CD TRANSLATOR FOR COMPUTER

[patricia]

Does anyone know if there is a CD which can be purchased for translation purposes which I can use to translate documents and letters etc. I know that I can use Altavista or something like that to translate small amounts of words but I need to translate a lot of literature or is there one I can download!

[Beachcomber]

This is one of a number of commercially available translation programs. A search on Google will bring forth many others.

[spanish hopes]

Power translator pro is another to try and is the one I use. However I have found that with most of these programmes Systrans included the translation is useful to give the gist of a document but rarely do they translate to a standard which could be described as professional.

[patricia]

Many thanks Beachcomber and Spanish Hopes I will look around on the Google site and see what I can find

[Beachcomber]

... rarely do they translate to a standard which could be described as professional.

Yes, I agree. This is because a professional human translator translates 'meanings not words' and uses semantic fields to make it make sense something which no computer software, no matter how sophisticated, is yet able to do.

[John M]

Hi patricia, I use Systran Pro Ver 4 to 'translate' minutes of meetings etc. It is very expensive software and a six page document still takes over an hour of human intervention post Syatran to turn into a readable document. It is much better than the word by word translations, but still needs the human touch to make it 'readable'.

The free translators on the web will produce a document which will give you the gist of the message and are very adaquate for casual use, but for anything serious you will need a human translation, and a fist full of euros.

[safeashouses]

If you google and get a spanish website and then bring the page up as 'translated' you can have a good laugh at the 'translation'. It will as previously said give you the gist of it and then the rest is up to you to make some sense of it.

[Peter]

Copy and paste the following and you will be able to download a free translator
http://zdnet.com.com/3120-20-0-1-0.html ... e=&ca=2001

[frank]

Agree with safeashouse. Try using one the acclaimed programmes, translate from English to Spanish, and then translate the outcome back into English. Makes for hilarious reading! Really there is no substitute for either learning the language, or paying a translator to do the job. At best, the programmes will give you the gist of it, but it's certainly not something you could use as an official document. Learn how to do it yourself, you can then charge obscene amounts of money doing translations for monglot Brits!

[frank]

Monoglot!!! I must reread my posts, instead of just hitting the button, I'll have Silver onto me!

[patricia]

Thank you for all your posts, it is German that I am learning and not Spanish. I already speak it (well I am always learning something new) I need to translate notes etc. just to get a rough idea of what they are in German. I was interested in the last post cut and paste, can you be a bit more specific about how I do that - see I told you I was always learning -

[spanish hopes]

Patricia, The Power Translator Pro which I use will do German and even japanese if you are only wanting it for a rough guide.

[patricia]

I have managed that thank you Peter, but I will try the Power Translator Spanish Hopes yes I just want a roughish guide, nothing too technical, it is not for important documents where it is essential to get everything just right