Software Review of:
Power Translator 
Pro 6.4 

Installation was relatively easy, giving the user choices regarding which language to install and proceed in.  I am currently a third year Spanish student, so I chose only the Spanish language option.  Once installed, I typed simple sentences, such as ‘My name is Meghan Myers.  I have red hair and blue eyes.’  The program was quite skilled in this type of translation.  I then inserted a script I had recently written for a puppet show in class.  The title "Dorothy y las zapatillas de color rubi" translates into "Dorothy and the ruby slippers."    The position of adjectives and nouns is different in English and Spanish.  Therefore, in Spanish, the adjective follows the noun, so ‘ruby slippers’ translates literally to ‘slippers of color ruby.’  Translator Pro couldn’t make this distinction.  But hey, no big deal.  You can figure out what the document was trying to convey. 

There were little problems along the way in the document.  ‘Si’ was translated into ‘if’ instead of ‘yes’.  ‘Entonces" became ‘then’ instead of ‘so’.  These are proof that the program could not determine the correct translation of words which have more than one meaning.  At one point in the script, Dorothy yells, "Don’t touch me," or "No me toques."  The verb ‘tocar’ can have two meanings; ‘touch’ or ‘play’ (as in an instrument).  Translator Pro translated the sentence as "Don’t play me," an inappropriate translation for the text. 

I was also disappointed in the fact that I had to let the program know which direction I wanted to go in.  If I was in the English-to-Spanish mode and typed in "Como estas?", the sentence was underlined in red in the translation box, indicating that the equivalent could not be found in Spanish.  It thought I had typed in an English word.  In addition, I had trouble inserting the document. I finally had to do a cut-and-paste job to make it work. 

With all of these inadequacies, Translator Pro did come relatively close to the real meaning of the words.  The program operates on about a Spanish I or II level.  When you get into more complicated figures of speech, especially past tense, the program regularly gives wrong words.  However, you CAN figure out the meaning of the original document in most cases.  I would not recommend typing a letter to your pen-pal in Spain using the translation program and sending it without asking a native speaker to proof-read it first.  The program is good for drafts, not final revisions.  If, however, you receive a letter which is written in Spanish from your pen-pal, use the translator program to get the basic idea of the letter.  You may need help from a native speaker with specific words or phrases, but the program will provide the gist of it. 

Power Translator Pro is carried locally by CompUsa for $139.  Best Buy should carry it, but the program is currently out of stock.  On-line, you can purchase  Power Translator Pro 6.43  for  $149.  The website address is: www.globalink.com, where you discover that Globalink is owned by Lernout & Hauspie, a developer of voice recognition programs. 

As Globalink states, human language is complex.  Not having used translation programs before, I don’t know how far the technology has come.  In the future, this technology should  improve and will probably be more exact.  Until then, don’t treat this program as the know all and be all of translation tools.  Right now, the human translator still reigns supreme.