Sometimes you might receive e-mail messages or documents that contain words in different languages whose meaning you are unsure of. With the Microsoft Office 2010 Mini Translator, you can point to a word or selected phrase with your mouse and the translation displays in a small window. The Mini Translator also includes a Play button so you can hear an audio pronunciation of the word or phrase, and a Copy button so you can paste the translation into another document.
Note The Mini Translator is only available in OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010.
What do you want to do?
Turn the Mini Translator on or off
To use the Mini Translator, you need to make sure that it is turned on. On the Review tab, in the Language group, click Translate, and then click Mini Translator.
If Mini Translator is selected 
, it is turned on.
If Mini Translator is not selected
, it is turned off.
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Set the Mini Translator language
The list of languages available the Mini Translator depends on the language version of Office 2010 you are using. To learn more about translation language pairs, see Translate text in a different language.
- On the Review tab, in the Language group, click Translate, and then click Choose Your Translation Language.
- In the Translation Language Options dialog box, click Mini Translator, and then click the language that you want from the Translate to list.
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Use the Mini Translator
After you have set the translation language and enabled the Mini Translator, point to a word in your file to see the translation.
See translations with the Mini Translator in Word
See translations with the Mini Translator in PowerPoint
See translations with the Mini Translator in Outlook
See translations with the Mini Translator in OneNote
Research a word
With the Mini Translator turned on, you can research a foreign language word to get more information.
- Point to a word in your document.
- To open the Research pane, in the Mini Translator, click Expand.
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Copy a translation to the Clipboard
You can easily copy the contents of the Mini Translator pane to the Clipboard, and then paste it into another document, such as an e-mail message.
- Point to a word in your document.
- In the Mini Translator, click Copy.
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Play a word or phrase
If you are unsure about how to say a word in a different language, you can use the Speak feature to hear the word being spoken. In order for this feature to work, you will need to download a text-to-speech engine in the language or languages that you want. To learn more, and to download TTS engines, see Using the Speak feature with Multilingual TTS.
To hear a foreign-language word being spoken, do the following:
- Point to a word in your document.
- In the Mini Translator, click Play
.
Note You can also hear phrases being spoken by selecting the phrase, pointing to it and then clicking Play.
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