How to Install Japanese Translator for Outlook Express

Getting the translation right

Sending and receiving email from foreign speakers can be fun, but also challenging. If you receive an email in a language you don't understand, you need some way of translating the sender's message, and replying to the sender in something close to an accurate translation of your own message. The bad news is that not many translation add-ins are available for Outlook Express. The good news is that there are free language translation resources on the Internet, and with a few extra steps, you can translate easily between English and Japanese using Outlook Express.

Things You'll Need

• Windows XP OS or better

Instructions

Translating Messages From Outlook Express Inbox

1. Start your Web browser and visit the Google home page. Click on the top menu item "More," and note that one of the options in the drop-down list is "Translate."

2. Click "Translate" from the drop-down list. You should now see a page with a text box and caption "Enter text or a web page URL." Re-size the page so it is less than the maximum page size.

3. Start Outlook Express, if you have not done so already. Re-size Outlook Express so it is less than the maximum page size, and position it so you can see both the Outlook Express in-box and the text box on the Google Translate page.

4. Open the message in Japanese that you wish to translate from your Outlook Express Inbox. Select all the text.

5. Drag and drop the text into the Google Translate text box.

6. Select "Japanese" from the "Translate from" drop-down list on the Google Translate page; this the source language. Next, select "English" from the "Translate into" drop-down list on the Google Translate page; this the target language.

7. Click the "Translate" button located below the text box on the right. This may happen automatically. Your translated text should appear in the space below immediately.

Translating Text to be Sent from Outlook Express

1. 

   Type your message carefully

   Click to open a "New" message window in Outlook Express. Then carefully type your message--keep it simple--'in English. Select all the text.

2. Drag and drop your source text into an empty Google Translate text box, which should be visible on your screen if you have re-sized appropriately for viewing multiple windows.

3. Select "English" from the "Translate from" drop-down list on the Google Translate page. Next, select "Japanese" from the "Translate into" drop-down list on the Google Translate page.

4. Click the "Translate" button located just below the text box on the right. This may happen automatically. Your translated text or target text should appear in the space below immediately.

5. Select the translated or target text. Then drag and drop the text into the original text box with your source language text message.

6. Position the target text below the source text, separating source and target texts with a line of dashes.

7. Drag and drop all texts--source and target--from the Google Translate text box into the message area of your Outlook Express "New" message window. Providing both source and target gives the recipient a chance to view your message in both languages.

8. 

   Preview and send your message

   Send your message from Outlook Express. Be sure to carefully preview your message before sending.

Tips & Warnings

• Microsoft does not support Outlook Express in the United States. Consequently, there are not many translation software packages that offer an email add-in. The few that do generally cover languages such as Spanish, French, German and Italian. However, in Japan, people still use Outlook Express, and many Japanese translation software packages offer email translation as an add-on. The problem with purchasing these products is that all the consumer information on the vendor websites as well as the dialogue for purchasing the products are in Japanese.

• Two well-known Japanese vendors that offer robust products are Cross-Language and Logovista. Both include a function for translating email from the Japanese version of Outlook Express.

• The steps outlined here are a work around for achieving translation of email in Outlook Express. Microsoft has developed a translation add-in for Office products, and may offer this capability for Windows Live Mail in the future. However, for now the options for Outlook Express users are very limited.

• Using automatic or machine translation (MT) implies the risk of misunderstanding the message that has been translated. The risk is greater when sending a message than when receiving one. Although using MT is convenient for discerning the gist of a message, it is not recommended that it be used for discussing very sensitive issues or for legal negotiations.

References

• Using Google Translate
• Word2Word Language Resources -- MT
• Cross Language (in Japanese)

Resources

• Omniglot -- a Guide to Languages