Language translation function in Word 2004 for Mac

[Trilby]

When I want to translate text (whether a single word, or more), Word
2004 does not do anything. I choose the text that I want to translate,
then I go to Tools > Language > Spanish, for instance. I click on
OK--and the chosen text gets a jagged red line under it, but remains in
English. The dialog box for this procedure has no other options than
those of choosing the language and clicking OK. Anyone know what I'm
missing?

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

When I want to translate text (whether a single word, or more), Word
2004 does not do anything. I choose the text that I want to translate,
then I go to Tools > Language > Spanish, for instance. I click on
OK--and the chosen text gets a jagged red line under it, but remains in
English. The dialog box for this procedure has no other options than
those of choosing the language and clicking OK. Anyone know what I'm
missing?

That's a spell-checker. It's telling you that the word(s) you selected are
not valid words in Spanish. Word does not have a translation feature. Try
Babelfish (pretty horrible).

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

When I want to translate text (whether a single word, or more), Word

That's a spell-checker. It's telling you that the word(s) you selected are
not valid words in Spanish.

Clarification. The jagged red line is a spell-checker. What you did when
you selected Tools | Language, Spanish was tag that text as Spanish, and
tell Word to use the Spanish dictionary when spell-checking it. Since it's
not Spanish, of course, Word is not flagging it as misspelled.

I think WinWord 2003 has a "translate" function but all it does it plug you
into existing services on the web, I believe, and of course you have to be
online. And even if MacWord did offer language translation, machine
translation is generally bad and should not be trusted. There are also
English-Spanish dictionary and Spanish-English dictionaries on the web which
would offer you a bit more control.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

There are also
English-Spanish dictionary and Spanish-English dictionaries on the web which
would offer you a bit more control.

You can even access them through Sherlock on your Mac (it's just la
front-end to online services, but I find it rather conveninent).

Corentin