Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of toolbars and other browser add-ins. But I’ve just come across a feature that makes the Windows Live Toolbar really, really useful: the Windows Live Translator button.

When you add this button to your Windows Live Toolbar, you can instantly translate almost any foreign-language webpage on the Internet. I love international travel and have dabbled in a few foreign languages (with varying degrees of success). Having an instant translator on my toolbar means I can expand my armchair travel to foreign language websites, and check out local information on all the places I plan to travel next.

The translator button is a spin-off of the Windows Live Translator beta website. On the website, you choose the languages you want to translate from and to, type in a few words, and it provides instant machine translation. Or, type in a web address, and it translates the whole page for you.

Because this is machine translation, it gives you a somewhat literal translation, which, I’ll admit, is far from perfect (hey, folks, this is still a beta). It doesn’t deal very well with complex sentences, and it REALLY can’t handle anything idiomatic, so it sometimes comes up with some, shall we say, interesting sounding sentences, (which personally, I find hilarious). But humor aside, it’s usually close enough to give you the gist of what any given sentence is about. It’s especially useful if you know a bit of a language, but need help with a word or two here and there.

Instant gratification

But to really take advantage of the services offered on the Translator website, I highly recommend adding the Translator button to your toolbar. Then, when you’re surfing through a foreign language website and come to a phrase you don’t understand, just click the button for an instant translation.

You can choose from 4 different views of the translated page: side by side, top over bottom, original with translation on hover, or translation with original on hover (the icons for each view are shown here, with the third choice, translation on hover, selected).

For a language I know pretty well (like French), I prefer the translate-on-hover view. I can still read the page in the original language, but when I get stuck, I just move my mouse over the sentence in question, et voilá! The translation appears.

For a language that I need a lot more help on (like Chinese), the side-by-side view is more useful.

Here’s how to get the Translator button:

1. If you don’t have it yet, install Windows Live Toolbar.
2. Close and re-open Internet Explorer to see the new toolbar in place.
3. Get the Translator button from Windows Live Gallery.
4. Close and re-open Internet Explorer again.
5. Set your default language pair by clicking the arrow next to the Translator button.
   

There are 25 language pairs to choose from in the Translator beta, mostly English paired with other languages (but French <-> German is also included). Additional language pairs will be added once this service comes out of beta.

Have fun, and let me know what you think!

Antonia Blume
Editor, Windows Live