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Mozilla Firefox - Plugins and Extensions

Translate Text or Web Pages Directly from Firefox

SUMMARY: The BabelFish Instant Translation add-on lets you translate words, paragraphs, or whole web pages from within Firefox by accessing external translation services for you.

Need to translate web page content from one language to another, but don't want to have to manually visit an external translation service from Google or Yahoo? The BabelFish Instant Translation plug-in for Mozilla Firefox can call these services for you.

1. Visit the following page from within Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7004

2. Click the "Add to Firefox" button.

3. The "Software Installation" dialog box will eventually appear. Click "Install Now" as soon as the button is enabled.



Installing the BabelFish Instant Translation add-on



4. Once the add-on has installed, click the "Restart Firefox" button. Depending on your configuration, Firefox may note that it will try to restart your windows and tabs.


Once Firefox has restarted you should notice a fish icon in the browser status bar. Left-click on the icon to choose the source and destination languages; right-click for custom translations, help, and to change preferences; and double-click to enable or disable BabelFish.


Once the languages are set, you can right-click a webpage and choose "Translate Page" to access a translation service. Other options include double-clicking a word to call the translation service (see the screenshot to the right) and holding down the Alt key while clicking inside a paragraph to translate it.

A variety of preferences include adjusting how the plug-in is activated, tooltip settings, and adding / removing available languages.



Adjusting BabelFish Instant Translation preferences



This tip was written regarding Mozilla Firefox v3.5.3 and BabelFish Instant Translation v1.90. Screenshots, instructions, and features for other versions may vary.

Return to the Mozilla Firefox - Plugins and Extensions page.

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The MalekTips website was created in 1998 by Andrew Malek of Envision Programming. The page's goal is to freely disperse computer-related tips, hints, and informative articles. Tips are organized to be easy to find, and are presented clearly, in easy-to-understand language. MalekTips also provides information and links to public-domain, open source, freeware, shareware, and commercial software available for download. < more >