Recently arrived from Windows world with a very very good (not free) dictionary software called Babylon, I missed this kind of software at Linux world.
Searching on the web, I found babytrans, actually it’s not as good as Babylon, missing some excellent features like just press CTRL and Right Click over the word and a smart pop-up window blows up on the screen with the translation and the meaning of the word, Babytrans is a good choice ( and I think the unique) .
I have install Babytrans in my laptop with Ubuntu, and it was very easy to install and a bit boring to configure.
Let’s start with instalation:
By the Gnone interface, click on System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, insert the root password.
Click on Search button, and type: Babytrans, mark the option: babytrans, click in Apply, the software will be installed.
The next phase is configure it, go to the ftp: ftp://ftp.ac-grenoble.fr/ge/languages/babylon_dict and get the files: dictionary, english.dic.gz, and in my case, I would like to translete some words from english to portuguese, I got the EngToPor.dic.gz.
Logged as root, open a terminal windows and type:
# mkdir /usr/local/share/babytrans
# cp dictionary /usr/local/share/babytrans
# mkdir /usr/local/lib/babytrans
# cp *.gz /usr/local/lib/babytrans
# gunzip /usr/local/lib/babytrans/EngToPor.dic.gz
# gunzip /usr/local/lib/babytrans/english.dic.gz
The next step is configure the dictionary to open the right file, type: #vim /usr/local/share/babytrans/dictionary
and check if the dictionary file name is the same as you just copy to the lib/babytrans directory, in my case the English/Portuguese dictionary wasn’t, I just changes the line:
po = Portugues , EngtoPort.dic
to
po = Portugues , EngtoPor.dic
Now, the final step is, choose your default dictionary/language, now as your user (not as root) type:
$vim ~/.babytrans/config
find the line: language = XX
change it to: language = po
Finished! Now you just need to open Babytrans (Applications > Other > Babytrans), select a word in you browser, for exemple, and take a look at the babytrans window, the word is right there, explained.
Babytrans is not a Babylon, but it can be useful in special cases that you have a doubt about a word in some text.
Enjoy!
Babytrans website: Babytrans
