Google Toolbar Translate Tool

[laepelba]

Do any of you use the "Translate tool" in the Google toolbar for Firefox? I just "discovered" it, and have started using it both at work and at home. I have it set so that if you mouse-over an English word, you will see suggestions for the equivalent Spanish words. Nice!

If you ARE using it ... do you have any ideas for me as to the accuracy? I mean, I wouldn't completely rely on it ... but it's been fun looking at random words in my e-mail or Facebook, etc. to see what they'd be in Spanish....

[Rusty]

You realize, of course, that there is frequently more than one meaning for a word. A dictionary will list different words to reflect the different meanings. Your job is to choose the right word out of the list. If only one word is offered when you mouse over a word, it may not be the correct word, or the best word.

It would be a good idea to have another reference source available so you can verify the suggested word(s). This forum is a good reference source. Many people swear that having a monolingual Spanish dictionary is essential. This is a good idea, but can be daunting for even someone at the intermediate level. If you can't understand the entries, the book is worse than useless.

[laepelba]

Oh, definitely! I would NEVER rely on just one source - and am just finding the word offerings to be quite interesting! :)

[cmon]

Just downloaded it from Firefox. I'm having sporadic results trying to use it on web pages. But as I'm typing this, the translator is working just fine. Maybe it's just not for use on web pages. Worked fairly well on my Yahoo home page if the word was underlined and in large type.
I think it's useful, especially if you already know the word you want to use but just need to double check your spelling.

I usually misspell ejercicio. So I typed in exercise and the translator gave me the correct spelling in Spanish. Cool

[laepelba]

I have found that it doesn't really work on words that (1) it can't find a dictionary (like plurals or other deviations from normal words), or (2) words that are already set up with an automatic mouse-over function. Otherwise, I've found that it works on everything else, to the point that I forget that the Spanish is going to pop up and I have to be more careful where I "leave" my mouse so as not to let the popups get in my way. :)

[cmon]

Have you played with the spellchecker and the look up a definition button yet?
Especially love the latter.

[laepelba]

No - are those buttons on Google toolbar? Can you set them for more than one language at a time? I'm out of town right now (and away from my computer), so I don't have access right now. But when I get home, I'll take a look! :D

[cmon]

The buttons are on the Google toolbar. You have your choice of 12 languages on the spellchecker. On the look up definitionbutton, you can key in a word or phrase you would like to see in context. I keyed in así sean and up popped articles from Spanish websites along with the machine translated English versions. There are other websites that can do the same thing, but using the toolbar is more convenient.

[laepelba]

Hey, Cmon - I finally had a chance to check out your spell check and definition lookup Google tools. I really like them. Thanks! :)