Translation Service 1.2.7
Reviewed by Robert Pritchett
http://www.kavasoft.com/TranslationService/ Released: November 23, 2006 $10 USD http://www.kavasoft.com/store/index.php?translation_service=1 Download: 663 KB file. Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. Strengths: A $10 app that can translate within Cocoa-based editable text-based apps. Ubinaried. Weaknesses: Does not work with apps ported from OS 9 or Carbon apps, websites, Email or PDFs. Unintelligent machine translation service only. |
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What is Translation Service?
Translation Service allows you to replace the selected text with a translation in any of several languages—in just one click. It works in any Mac OS X program, so you don't have to copy and paste text back and forth.
What's a Service? A Service is a Mac OS X feature that allows programs to exchange data with one another. Services are available in the Services submenu of the application menu. For example, Translation Service replaces the selected text with a translation.
How do I install Translation Service?
· Download Translation Service and copy the icon to your Applications folder.
· Open the Translation Service icon in your Applications folder.
· Choose "Update Services Menu" from the application menu. Translation Service will be available in programs launched afterwards.
How do I use Translation Service?
Select the text you would like to translate. From the application menu in the current application, choose:
Services ▶ Translate ▶ [language] → [language]
The text will be translated in place. That's it!
To quickly translate text again in the same direction, choose:
Services ▶ Translate ▶ Again (⇧⌘>)
To quickly
translate text again in the opposite direction, choose:
Services ▶ Translate ▶ Back
(⇧⌘<)
Note: Sometimes it may be necessary to choose a command from the menu before the keyboard shortcuts will work.
Which languages can be translated? You can translate text back and forth between the following languages:
English ↔ Deutsch |
English ↔ 日本語 |
English ↔ Español |
English ↔ 汉语(简化) |
English ↔ Français |
English ↔ 漢語(傳統) |
English ↔ Italiano |
Français ↔ Deutsch |
English ↔ Nederlands |
Français ↔ Español |
English ↔ Português |
Français ↔ Italiano |
English ↔ Ελληνικά |
Français ↔ Nederlands |
English ↔ Русский |
Français ↔ Português |
English ↔ 한국어 |
Français ↔ Ελληνικά |
In the Preferences, you can choose which languages appear in the Translate
menu, and assign your own keyboard shortcuts.
Which applications does Translation Service work in? Services work in applications that were designed for Mac OS X ("Cocoa" applications), such as TextEdit, Mail 1.x, Stickies, OmniWeb, Safari, Keynote, and Xcode.
Services do not work in most applications that were ported from Mac OS 9 ("Carbon" applications), such as Microsoft Office, AppleWorks, or America Online. However, services do work in some updated Carbon applications, most notably BBEdit and the Finder.
Further, the selected text must be editable, since Translation Service replaces the selected text with a translation. For example, you can't translate the text in a web page, an incoming mail message, or a PDF. In these cases, you should copy the text to a compatible program, or use the translation window. To translate an incoming message in Mail, just hit reply and translate the quoted message.
Can I translate text directly using Translation Service? If you prefer, you can translate text directly in the Translation Service application. Choose File ▶ Translate (⌘T) and the translation window will appear.
Enter your text in the top field, choose languages to translate from and to, and click the Translate button. The translated text will be displayed in the bottom field.
How reliable are the translations? In general, machine translation should be regarded as an aid, but it is up to you to double-check anything that you translate. KavaSoft is not responsible for the accuracy of the translations.
What does the icon mean? The icon for Translation Service is 譯, the Traditional Chinese character for "translate”.
What I Say
This is a direct “machine language” translation and you might be better off using Systran http://www.systransoft.com/index.html for localized translation services. Translation Service connects to the Internet and ties into a service located at
unkown.servercentral.net on TCP port 80 (hppt)
Did you know there is a similar service in Sherlock for free? Also check out our other services for translation at
http://www.maccompanion.com/services/translation.html
This app does
not work with every application, just those that are Cocoa-based and the
translations are literal word-swaps, nothing more, so don’t count on the
selected text being “translated correctly”.
This is a work-in-progress.
If you want to support it, go ahead and pay the $10 USD, or continue using Sherlock’s Translation instead.
