Use Google Translator to translate email. Identify each person's native language in the address book and translate between the sender and recipient's languages.
The "Translator" Add-on no longer works. I think it would be a fairly easy feature for an experienced developer to send text from a Sender's email to the Google Translator and get the text back In the Recipient's language. Then save both in the body before depositing to the inbox. Since the Google Translator has a 5000 word limit, you might have to do it in pieces. This would be best if it was a Feature of Thunderbird rather than an Add-on. If the user wants to use it, he merely enters the "Native Language" in the member's address book. A customized "Native Language Default" could be helpful. I don't know what Calling Parameters the Google Translator provides for. I'm hoping they provide at least the Incoming and Outgoing language.
I could if necessary provide German emails for testing. Others can provide French, etal. I hope you will consider this request. I presently do the Google Translator myself. But I have to save the Translations in a separate Word file. It would be better if I could eliminate that Word file and just keep the translation with the email in the In and Out Boxes. I presently only have one German correspondent, but within a week, I will have a whole German Family, spread out across Westphalen, that will be writing me. I will have to keep a Word file on everyone. I will be overwhelmed. In the interest of Family togetherness, please consider my request.
Bob Brooks (bob.brooks@cox.net)
Chosen solution
If you want to store the translated version with the original message, I don't know of an automated way, but with the HeaderToolsLite add-on, you could copy the translated text into the body of the received or sent message.
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Are you talking about this addon: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/s3google-translator/
I was unaware of the s3google-translator that you sent me. It was not listed among add-ons. The only one listed would not work on the current versions of T'bird. So I didn't even try it.
I downloaded and tried the one you sent. I got the same error message when I tried it on Firefox and T/bird. I may not be installing it correctly. So please send me instructions on the proper way to install from this file, s3google_translator-5.38-sm+tb.xpi, on T'bird and Firefox.
Thank you, Bob
Thank You. I followed your instructions and the add-on is now installed. It works very nice. But it stops short of what is needed. Is there someway the translated text of an email can be stored with the incoming email for future reference?
In my case I will be communicating with many people (all German) but to remember the conversations I will have to preserve in Word files everything that they sent me translated to English and my English reply before translating to German. If the translation of the incoming German to English could be preserved with the incoming email, I could eliminate the Word files. Outgoing would be no problem. I could simply translate before sending and keep both the German and English copies in the email.
I need to translate before sending because the recipient may not be using T'bird and therefore won't have the translator available.
The only thing I specified that would be nice is the automatic translation based on a field in the address book that would specify the recipient's native language and a field in the T'bird Parameters specifying the native language for this PC.
I like what I saw though. And I will start using it immediately. There are several of my friends with the same problem. If they are using T'bird, I will help them install the add-on. It's a big step forward. Thank you for sending me this hint. Bob
I found another problem. The add-on is limited by the 5000 word limit of the Google translator. I get an error if I exceed that but it doesn't say its because of the size limit. It would be nice if the add-on handled the size problem. Am I greedy or what? Bob
I have found the re-translation feature very helpful. The Google Translator doesn't always get it right the first time. But if I can change the words, I can get the Translator to correctly translate my words to German. For instance they didn't correctly translate "commencement address"; so I changed it to "a speech to the Graduates of Harvard University". Then it worked fine. Google also had trouble with the word "her"; they changed it to "them"; so I changed it to "Angela" and that solved the problem. I had to go thru several re-translations to get it right. but do you know how long that would have taken me doing it manually?
Thank you again for sending me this add-on. Bob
Chosen Solution
If you want to store the translated version with the original message, I don't know of an automated way, but with the HeaderToolsLite add-on, you could copy the translated text into the body of the received or sent message.
Thanks I'll try that.
But in addition let me say how many problems I've discovered in google translation, only because of the re-translation feature of this product. Just to mention a couple of them: 1 - It's inconsistent. The 2nd translation will not be the same as the 1st for the very same phrase. 2 - It throws away phrases and even sentences. So I now know to save ever version I send for translation. Especially the last one. And don't make any changes to the last one. 3 - It has trouble with "her" and "them" and "and" and "which" and lots of other words. That's probably due to the German side. 4 - I learned to keep sentences short. No compounds or relative phrases. They sometimes don't translate. There are more but I don't want to bore you. I may have to write a book on how to use the Google Translator at least for German / English.
I've also benefited from the "phrase translation" of the add-on. It's great for doctoring the final version. I can add German Phrases and words to the final version, even though I don't know German. For instance, I used the phrase "past perfect or present tense". I can't tell you how many wrong translations of that I got. The best I could get from the Google Translator was "past or present tense". So, using the phrase translator, I just added the word "perfect" in German.
I'd like to make a little donation. Should I make it to Mozilla or the Author? Just send me a link.
Again, Thank You. I hope it will be available in the add-ons soon for the public. And if there are any updates, how will I know them? And how will I download them? Bob
I installed and tried the Headertoolslite that you recommended. It works fine. It's a final answer to my original request. Between it and the s3google-translator, I'm able to Translate the original German to English and Save the translation in the body with the original German email.
Bob
I had 15 emails in German in my inbox that I needed to translate and save as you suggested. Only about 3 or 4 exceeded the 5000 word limit of Google. There are a lot of steps to remember and I had to re-do several because I got out of synch with my procedure. However, it's better than what I've been doing. And I can eliminate those Word files now.
Here is the procedure I followed. 1 - Chose an email in the inbox. 2 - Translate it from German to English. If it exceeds 5000 words, I get an error and must reduce the translation to only a part of the body. Copy the English translation for that part. 3 - Open a new email form and paste the part into the body. Save the email as a draft. NB: If I only translated a part, then I must repeat steps 2 & 3 using the same draft email that I started for the first part before proceeding to step 4. 4 - Open the Draft email after all the translation is saved and run headertoolslite. 5 - Copy the HTML and close the Draft. 6 - Open the original email from the inbox. 7 - Run headertoolslite. Paste the HTML into the bottom of the existing HTML. 8 - Save the email and reopen to check that the English translation is appended to the German.
This is a lot but it's better and faster than what I've been doing. But that was only the inbox. In the inbox, you can only work with what you get. Composing a new email to send is a different story.
What I learned about the defects in the Google translator by using the re-translation feature of the add-on surprised me. For a very short email that I was composing, I must have re-translated at least 12 times before the translated version satisfied me. There may be some way that you can make the retranslation iterations easier. I have nothing to suggest. It wasn't a part of my original suggestion.
What you recommended to me is OK for me, but I doubt many others would want to do it. So I'm going to close my request. The solution that you recommended satisfies me. But I think you should consider what I recommended originally. The 5000 word limit is going to stop some people. The complexity of this procedure will stop others. And then there are the problems with the Google Translator.
But I'm happy. Thanks again a million times for this solution. Bob
No rose without a thorn...
I think you can simplify the process a bit by omitting the draft as an intermediary. After you copy the English translation, it is stored in the Windows clipboard, and can be pasted into the original HeaderToolsLite message with Ctrl+V. The W10 clipboard (Winkey+V) is even better in that it stores multiple copy (Ctrl+C) snippets.
I have been using the Translator on Thunderbird frequently since I installed it. I like it so much that I tried today to install it on Firefox using the instructions you provided. I got a corrupt file error. So I did what the instructions said to do for corrupt file. Then I downloaded again (I now have about 5 versions or s3Google_Translator). I still get the same corrupt file error. What am I doing wrong?
The add-on that works in TB won't install in Firefox. There is a version for Firefox, but the installation is complex. A version for Chrome is available.
Until the add-on is made available again on the Firefox add-on site, try a different translate add-on, such as Google Translate.
I'll do that. Thank you. Bob