The Internet breaks the barriers of communication by allowing quick translations to connect people from different countries. While there are multiple online translation services, some users still prefer having a standalone desktop application at hand to translate texts. One example is Cjsoft Translator.

Although simple in essence, note that the graphics of this application require OpenGL version 2.0 or higher to be able to start. Its footprint is also not quite small, especially for a simple translation tool. Even so, Cjsoft Translator works as promised and allows quick and easy translations between multiple languages.

You can use Cjsoft Translator to translate individual words or entire texts. Usage is simple and so is its GUI’s appearance, comprising three panels. The first requires you to enter the input text or words that you need translated, while the second prompts you to enter the language code of the target language.

Please be advised that Cjsoft Translator can only work with language codes (e.g. for Spanish use ‘es’, for English use ‘en’, etc.) and cannot recognize the whole language name (e.g. ‘Spanish’). I must admit this caused a bit of frustration, because of the need to know or search for the code online, instead of simply selecting a language from a plain drop-down list, as I was expecting.

The translated text is shown in the third panel and a notification message is shown to let you know that the translation was successful.

While you can copy the output text to the clipboard without restrictions, there are no additional options for exporting it to a file, run dictionary searches, spell check the text or automatic language

While online services do allow loud reading of the translated text, to get acquainted with the pronunciation, Cjsoft Translator does not.

Cjsoft Translator executes its task rather quickly, but the absence of extra tools to handle a translated text, the mandatory requirement of the language code and the lack of exporting options make me think twice about using it instead of an online service such as Google Translate, which is one-click away.