Firefox translation plugin

[Joleen]

I did a quick search and didn't see anything on this so it may help some who like myself am just beginning to learn characters. The Firefox browser has a plugin available which will add a toolbar allowing mouseover translation of characters from Chinese to English and also from English to Chinese. Another version available from the makers website will also translate from Japanese to English.

The plugin can be found in the languages section of the Firefox extensions.

Hope it helps.

[Daan]

Thanks, I will give it a shot

[smalltownfart]

Do u mean the Chinese-English-Japanese Character Hint Bar? it seems a little buggy, but looks like it could be very useful indeed.

[Joleen]

There's a new version so it may be improved from when you tried it.

[laohu489]

This is a great website that I know and the guy just put in a firefox toolbar for both traditional and simplified characters. I use it all the time and it has never failed me.

MDBG Online Chinese/ English Dictionary

From this page you can get the plugin as well.

[csy]

I think there's a better option, a piece of software called 金山词霸 2005 (try a google search to find out more). It does exactly what you describe - when you hover the mouse over a Chinese character, it shows the English translation, and vice versa. It works in any program, not just firefox.

I did a quick search and didn't see anything on this so it may help some who like myself am just beginning to learn characters. The Firefox browser has a plugin available which will add a toolbar allowing mouseover translation of characters from Chinese to English and also from English to Chinese. Another version available from the makers website will also translate from Japanese to English.

The plugin can be found in the languages section of the Firefox extensions.

Hope it helps.

[laohu489]

I'm Such a geek I use all of those. ;) 金山字霸 is a good program, but the translations are not the best. It is a good program to use if you need something on the fly and don't want to spend time looking it up properly.

[hughitt1]

Aside from MDBG, there is also another extension simply called "translate " that is pretty decent. It uses altavista's babelfish translation system.

[trevelyan]

I'd like to take a look at the MDGB plugin but can't find it at the site. If anyone knows where it is located please post the link. Also -- I'm under the impression that the Babelfish plugin translates the entire page. Are these plugins actually grabbing the text under the mouse and doing very specific translation/annotation?

This annotation service does not come as a plugin (although it may be possible to develop one if Firefox really can grab text-under-mouse), but if people haven't seen it they may want to look at http://www.adsotrans.com. The advanced page contains a variety of annotation options that range from straight conversion to pinyin to providing tone marks and pinyin above the actual Chinese characters.

[laohu489]

Just click on this link and it will take you to the word dictionary basic. There is a link for Javascript in the middle of the page that will add your choice of simplified or traditional dictionary lookup to your firefox browser. You are only two mouse clicks away!

[hughitt1]

For the translate extension that uses the babelfish engine, you just highlight /select the text you want to translate with the mouse, and then right click and it gives you the option to open a tab or window with the babelfish translation results. I havnt' tried MDGB yet so not sure how it works.