New Microsoft Edge: Translation and Spell Checking arrives
One of the features that I missed a lot when I took Microsoft's new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser to the test was support for translations and spell checking.
The new Microsoft Edge is available as a development build currently only, and it is only natural that some features are missing. I had hopes that Microsoft would deliver the missing components before release, and the company did just that with the release of a new Canary channel version of Microsoft Edge.
The Translate feature is build-in, but it needs to be activated at this point in time. It is likely that Microsoft restricts this for now but will enable the feature natively for all Edge installations once the browser reaches a stable build.
Note: You need to enable Microsoft Edge Translate on edge://flags first at this point before translation functionality becomes available.
Once enabled, Edge's translate feature works similarly to the translate feature in Chrome. The browser detects a foreign language and displays a prompt to translate the page to the user.
That prompt goes away when you click or do something else, but you may reopen it with a click on the translate icon in the Edge address bar.
Select a language that you want the content to be translated to and hit the translate button to have Edge translate it. You may also select "not now" to dismiss the prompt, or check the "always translate pages from" box to automate the process further. If you do that, Edge will translate pages that are in the language automatically to the selected language.
Microsoft Edge translates the content on the fly and displays it on the page right away. Microsoft uses its own translation service for that and not Google Translate; this should not come as a surprise though.
Language support is good and you may select any supported language from the list if you don't want the content to be translated into the suggested language.
Spell checking support has been integrated as well, at least for some users. It works only in text fields, and is not available for all users at the time of writing.
Closing Words
Spell checking is a core feature of any browser, and translation functionality is a nice to have feature, especially for users who look beyond regional offerings.
Now You: Did you try the new Edge? What is your impression?
Oh I see what you meant @Pierre – I checked all the flags too :(
There was a release already for x64 v140.
https://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/341437-microsoft-edge-canary-channel-updates/?tab=comments#comment-1454583
Sorry, I don’t have it in the flags
Version 75.0.139.1 (Official build) dev (64-bit)
@Yuliya:
I agree. I’m running a portable version of Edge Canary 75.0.140.0 on Windows 8. I’d like to find a way to cache only in RAM, and to place tabs under the address bar, but so far. Edge is running REALLY well.
The new Edge is interesting and I have tried it out, but I ended up uninstalling it because I ran into a number of bugs that ended up leading to crashed websites. Not shocking behavior, after all I was using the Dev channel version. That said, I will wait until Microsoft is ready to release a more stable Beta channel before I check it out again. Hopefully by then the bugs I encountered will have been addressed. I think the new Edge has a lot of potential, especially in the enterprise sector where many IT departments will be quite happy not being “forced” to install Firefox or Chrome on employee computers.
Bing translator sucks. At least its support of my native language. Their translations don’t make sense lol.
“like Brave and other privacy focused initiatives”
Brave is centered on the idea of targeting its own ads by snooping on browsing history. That’s the opposite of a privacy focused initiative. There is no “acceptable snooping”, privacy is no snooping at all.
If the Edge team gets their shit together, they might even become serious competition for the new emerging browser concepts like Brave and other privacy focused initiatives.
When Facebook publicly announces that privacy is the number one goal, public opinion has probably shifted enough to make microsoft wake up a bit.
One could argue that the main goal of MS is making money, and not creating beautiful products, but privacy is a gold mine, long-term.
I like what they’re doing with Edge. However, since Chromium has nothing similar of a LTS release, and by LTS I mean LTS, not 6 the six months nonsense which some organisation claim to be LTS, I wonder what they will do in the future WindowsLTSB/Server releases. They will have to either maintain IE11, or just remove* it.
* well, the browser UI component at least, the engine is pretty much impossible to be removed from Windows