Microsoft Translator For Microsoft Office

Microsoft has released an add-on for Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 that adds the company's Live Search Translator tool to the two Office programs. This move replaces the WorldLingo translator, the previous Office translation tool.

Replacing is not probably the best word to describe it as WorldLingo is still available and can be selected on a language per language basis in the translation options. Microsoft Translator will be the default translator with WorldLingo set as the fallback translator.

Note: Microsoft added Microsoft Translator -- also known as Windows Live Translator or Bing Translator -- to Office 2010 and newer versions of Office natively. An add-on is no longer required if you use Office 2010 or newer versions.

Microsoft Translator for Office

To install Microsoft Translator download the installer from the Microsoft website and execute it on a local computer system. Make sure Microsoft Office is closed during the installation. The installer will then add Microsoft Translator as the default Office translator automatically for the languages that are supported by it.

The add-on adds a button to the review ribbon which translates selected text in a document automatically, and display it in the Research pane in Microsoft Office interface.

Microsoft Translator detect the language of the selected text automatically. The default language to translate into is English unless the text that has to be translated in English. In this case it is French. Pulldown menus are available to change the target language of the translation on the fly.

A click on Translate Options in the Research pane allows for the selection of the WorldLingo translator for selected languages instead of the Microsoft Translator. Microsoft Translator will work in Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, Visio and Publisher.

Please note that the application is only compatible with Office 2003 and 2007 versions, and that you can use it in all apps including Outlook which may be interesting to some users.

The download is still provided by Microsoft and the translator should work just fine despite its age.

Note that translation services have been integrated into Office 2010 by default. All you have to do here is to highlight text you want translated, switch to the review tab, and select the translate options there.

Verdict

Having two translator options at your disposal allows you to compare the results of Microsoft Translator with those by WorldLingo. This option is no longer available in Office 2010 and newer versions of the application though.

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