Hebrew translation in MS Word

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 07 2006 Posts: 3623

I used to use the Hebrew-English translation feature (in the Research section) of MS Word a lot. Now we just reinstalled Windows and Office (long story, suffice it to say, it has NOT been fun, and we ain't done yet) and it won't translate to or from Hebrew anymore! (It will do plenty of other languages, though - Greek-Russian, anybody?)

Does anyone know how I can get it to translate Hebrew again? I have not (yet?) had success with the Help files or searching for information online.
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אין עוד מלבדו
Ein od milvado

Posted: Wed, Dec 31 2008, 3:56 am Post subject:

Is it much use? I use Babylon and I would recommend it - it costs three or four hundred shekels. You can download a trial version from their site for free. After that they kept reminding me to buy it. Then one day they sent me a reminder with 33% off the price. So I decided I would buy it. When I waited one more day they sent me an offer with 50% of the price!
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"The problem begins with... their political hangers oners... such as Anat Hoffman. She is a davener like I am a chinese belly dancer." (FS)

Professional Hebrew>English translations - pm me for details.
(Complimentary ad as mod)

do you want a translation or how to type in Hebrew?
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Mom to 7+3+8, [33 to 21], two SILs and one DIL & 3 cute gd's and 5 handsome gs's. And a greatl DH. BARUCH HASHEM

Please say Tehillim for Leah bas Sara Malka; Rikva bas Shaina Sara; Shulamis Chava bas Bluma,

morfix (sp?) is a good online translation site.
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Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. (I haven't finished growing up yet; I'm still a work in progress - until 120!)

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 07 2006 Posts: 3623

I use it when I'm working, so it's faster for me not to have to open a book or start looking things up online. It is pretty good. I downloaded Babylon and it's better b/c it's smarter - with MS, I have to make sure I get the conjugation right for the word to be recognized - but my Babylon free trial expires in a week (less, now!) and I'd rather not pay money for something that's lurking somewhere in my computer! shalhevet, when your free trial expired, did it let you keep using it with annoying reminders or did it stop working? I'll keep morfix in mind in case I need it - thanks!

Posted: Thu, Jan 01 2009, 3:47 am Post subject:

No, you can't use it any more once the trial expires. But wait a few days after it does until they send you a really good offer, and then it really isn't expensive. I bought the permanent license, not the yearly one.

can somoene explain where in MS word this "feature" is located? I would buy the not-trial version if I knew where to find the feature! As far as I know, I can type in hebrew using alt+shift, and I have a theasorus(sp), not a dictonary, in word, and said theasorus only works for english. can someone give more details to those of us who arent as computer literate? I would use this feature if I knew it exsited and where to find it!! I have MS word 07.

Posted: Thu, Jan 01 2009, 11:52 am Post subject:

There are two different things.

Word has an inbuilt translation feature - right click on the word.

Babylon is a company that sells a program you install, where you can click on any word in an email, word, many other programs (it doesn't work on the net) and you get an instant translation. It's much more comprehensive than the Word feature. You can Google Babylon to find it.

Posted: Thu, Jan 01 2009, 12:17 pm Post subject:

Posted: Thu, Jan 01 2009, 12:31 pm Post subject:

my older version of Word had all that stuff built-in. Then they went and "improved" it so I can get translations only online, which I davka don't prefer. Confused

Gold Member Joined: Aug 20 2007 Posts: 1308

It's part of the proofing tools. When you install Office, there is a section where you can choose which components you want to install. You need to select the proofing tools in there or they won't get installed since they're deselected by default. You can install this component after the fact, but it's been so long since I've done it I don't remember how. I think if you insert the Office CD it will prompt you if you want to install new components.

I went looking for an installation guide but couldn't really find a good one. Maybe one of these will help you:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ork2003/HA011402181033.aspx

http://www.board4all.cz/showthread.php?t=70680 (This explains how to install them in Office 2007 if you have an Office 2003. The steps taken here should help you install just the proofing tools regardless of version).

Sorry this isn't as clear as I wanted it to be. I hope it helps!

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 07 2006 Posts: 3623

Thanks, everyone. Babylon expired, so I decided to try Morfix and so far I'm happy with it. I didn't really need all of Babylon's extras. I was going to try your suggestions, bluebird - thanks for posting the links - but I think I'll stick with Morfix for now, as long as it's working for me. It also has the advantage over Word that I can keep the Morfix window in Hebrew while my Word window is in English and I don't have to keep switching back and forth. And Morfix also can figure out conjugations well (unlike Word). Thanks again!