Power Translator Reviewer's Comments

Power Translator 11 Personal is a useful and well-designed program that fell short of reaching the top three because of its translation accuracy. While it is definitely good, Power Translator 11 still gave us enough errors that we couldn’t always understand the intent of the text we translated.

Despite being #4 in translation accuracy, Power Translator is still a leader in usability and offers useful ways to integrate into network media. The ability to translate emails, instant messaging conversations and web pages makes Power Translator a good choice for a business environment.

Power Translator 11 Personal is similar to Translate 2007; both are manufactured by LEC, an industry leader. There are three main differences in the packages: price, service level and online subscriptions. Power Translator 11 Personal comes with standard service versus premium, includes a one-month subscription to Translate DotNet, and doesn’t include a subscription to Translate ToGo.

Effectiveness:  

Power Translator did a good job translating in our tests but still had a few flaws. The text was understandable, but some inaccuracy in the translation caused some misunderstanding and made the text harder to read. Despite this, Power Translator still performed well and would be useful in any translating situation. To see just how Power Translator performed, look at the articles Test Format, Test 1, Test 2 and Test 3. 

Features:  

Power Translator 11 Personal is divided into five different Interfaces: LEC MirrorTrans, LEC TransIt, LEC ClipTrans, LEC LogoTrans and you can access any of the modules through the LEC Power Translator interface. Each interface has tools that are effective for different applications. LogoTrans specializes in translating small amounts of text. ClipTrans automatically translates anything copied to Microsoft’s clipboard. This works well for translating emails and other documents. MirrorTrans translates as you work in another window. You could type a letter in Word and the translated version appears in the MirrorTrans window as you type. And TransIt specializes in translating instant messages and chats. The suite also includes a one–month subscription to Translate DotNet. This LEC web-based translation engine will give you the ability to translate to and from many languages. 

Ease of Use:  

Each of the interfaces is user–friendly; anyone could use the software to successfully translate content. 

Available Languages:  

Power Translator comes with a wide variety of language pairs, including such languages as French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese. Unfortunately, you can only buy single language pairs. This is fine if you know you will only need to translate from one specific language, but it doesn’t offer as much for your money as Babylon or @promt. 

Supported Formats/Files:  

Power Translator works well with web browsers and email. For any programs that Power Translator won’t directly integrate with, you still have the option of copying and pasting text directly into the Power Translator translation engine and receiving results. 

Help/Support:  

While Power Translator does come with a user manual, you may need the program to translate it since it sometimes comes in Spanish. However, the FAQs are in English. You can contact LEC customer support through phone and email. 

Summary:  

This budget-friendly, user-friendly suite makes translation a breeze for the home or business user. But for a higher accuracy rate, try our top ranked translation software program Babylon.