Translate Help

This translate feature is provided by a third party (AltaVista Babel Fish). As an automatic translator, Babel Fish works best when the text you wish to translate uses proper grammar. Slang, misspelled words, abbreviations, etc can all cause a page to be translated incorrectly. Expect Babel Fish to allow you to grasp the general intent of the original, not to produce a polished translation.

To translate a web page:

• Copy the web address of the page you want to translate and paste it into the "Translate a Web page" text box provided near the bottom of the blue box.
• Select the language pair from the list (for example, German to English).
• Click on the "Translate" button.

When you click a link on a translated web page, the linked page is also automatically translated.

Back

Here are some frequently asked questions:

How accurate is a Babel Fish translation?
Machine translation produces reasonable results in many cases. But you should not rely on it. If you want to send a translated text to another person or use it in correspondence, always explain that you are using an automatic translator named Babel Fish and append or reference the original text. This acknowledgement will put the translation into the right context and will help you avoid embarrassing misunderstandings. When it is important to have an accurate translation, ask a human translator to polish the Babel Fish translation.

Why do I get "Translation Ends Here" or "Time Out" in the translated document?
Translation requires significant resources on the AltaVista Babel Fish servers. To serve as many users as possible, they translate a maximum of 5k of text. If the page exceeds this limit, you see "Translation ends here" in the text. There is also a time limit per sentence. If translation of a sentence takes longer than the allowed time, you see "Time Out" in the text and the translation of the sentence is likely to be poor.

How can I save the translated text of a web site page?
Follow these instructions to save the HTML file and then edit out the HTML commands as necessary.

Internet Explorer users :

• Right click in the area that contains the text you want to save.
• Choose"View Source".
• In the new window that opens click "File" from the menu bar, and select "Save As".
• Name the file, choose a folder on your hard disk, and click the "Save" button.

• Click in the area that contains the text you want to save.
• Click "File" from the menu bar, and select "Save Frame As".
• Name the file, choose a folder on your hard disk, and click the "Save" button.

Occasionally, a web page you want to translate is on a slow server or the server has a poor network connection. This interferes with Babel Fish translation and can result in an error. Check the web page by going to the web address without using Babel Fish. If the original page is displayed very slowly or not at all, the problem is with the web site you are trying to read.

Back