Many users are looking for the appropriate way to add instant translation for use from the browser. This is because translation has become a very important aspect on the web. As most websites rely on English as the primary language and may not include Arabic in language options, what is the solution then?
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Some people may resort to Google Translate service, but this process is somewhat long as it requires you to copy what you want to translate, go to the service, paste the paragraph and get the translation. However, that method is not really efficient. Fortunately, most browsers now offer instant translation feature for web pages, which in turn will provide translation based on a number of translation services with a click of a button. Let’s see how to activate it.
Enabling Instant Translation on Google Chrome Browser
Even in its very old versions, Google Chrome browser includes the automatic translation feature for websites relying on Google Translate service. This feature identifies all texts on the displayed web page and translates them without affecting the format or arrangement of sentences, making it ideal for understanding reports written in a language different from your mother tongue. This feature is enabled by default in all versions of Google Chrome, but there are more than one way to adjust it to automatically translate specific languages.
The first method is through the settings page. After launching the browser, click on the menu button ( ⁝ ) and select “Settings”. In the page that appears, go to the “Languages” section, make sure to activate the “Google Translate” option, then select your native language from the “Translate into this language” list – the language you want pages to be translated into. Then click on the “Add languages” button next to the “Automatically translate these languages” section, then select the languages you want the browser to translate automatically when detecting any website displayed in those languages, such as French, Russian, Spanish, German.
The second method is by clicking on the Google Translate icon located on the right/left of the address bar, which appears when visiting a site in a language not listed in the browser’s languages. After clicking on this icon, click on the menu button ( ⁝ ) and choose “Always translate [foreign language]” then select the language you want the page to be translated into to update the site and display the translated version of the site immediately. From now on, whenever you visit a site displayed in this foreign language, it will be automatically translated to your native language.
Enabling Instant Translation on Microsoft Edge Browser
Just like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge browser, which also relies on the Chromium engine, includes the instant translation feature based on the Microsoft Translate service for translating web pages. This feature is disabled by default in the browser, but enabling it is very easy. All you have to do is open the browser, click on the menu button (…) at the far right of the toolbar, then select “Settings” and in the next page, go to the “Languages” section from the side menu, then activate the “Offer to translate pages that aren’t in a language I read” option as shown in the image above.
From this section, you can also select your preferred languages. For example, if you are proficient in both English and Arabic, you can make sure to add both languages to the “Preferred Languages” list so that the browser does not display the instant translation feature when browsing sites in these two languages.
Enabling Instant Translation on Firefox Browser
Contrary to Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome browsers, Firefox browser does not come with an instant translation feature for websites and web pages. However, this does not mean that it is impossible, as the Mozilla company, the developer of the browser, has provided more than one official way to help users translate websites.
The first and easiest way is to download the To Google Translate add-on, which adds a new option to the menu that appears after right-clicking on web pages. After clicking on this option, the web page itself will open in a new tab where you can select the language you want the content to be translated into, and all text on the page will be instantly translated to the language you specified. There is also a second add-on called ImTranslator that performs almost the same task but provides more customization options for translating entire web pages or just parts of them.
The second method relies on an official add-on from Firefox called “Firefox Translations” which adds the instant translation feature for web pages you visit on the browser, similar to Edge and Chrome. After installing the add-on and visiting a website in a foreign language, a new bar will appear below the address bar suggesting you translate the whole site. You select the language you want to translate to, then press Translate and then click on the “Translate this tab automatically as you browse” button. Once done, the content will be fully analyzed and translated, and any page you visit from this site will be automatically translated. However, keep in mind that while the add-on does its job well to provide instant translation feature, it only supports very limited languages and unfortunately Arabic is not among the supported languages.
