SDL International (London Stock Exchange: 'SDL'), the world’s leading provider of translation service and software solutions - has launched SDLDesktopTranslator™ for Microsoft Office.

 This low-cost subscription service puts SDL’s instant Machine Translation (MT) and access to professional translation services inside Microsoft Word or Outlook, via an online connection. The user downloads a toolbar from freetranslation.com and translation becomes part of their Microsoft Office 2000, XP or 2003 environment. Whether submitting a section of text or a whole document, the user simply selects the language pair and at the push of a button the translated text is returned directly to the Office application, with its format maintained. At the same time, the user can get a free quotation for human translation between any two languages.

This launch, coming after The Times of London and Internet Magazine* listed SDL’s freetranslation.com alongside Google, eBay, and Amazon.com as one of the 100 “most useful websites,” brings the leading translation technology to the user’s desktop.

SDL is best known for its enterprise-level translation solutions, being the world leader in translation management systems and one of the world’s top two for translation and localization services. Machine Translation comes from SDL’s Enterprise Translation Server, and is being made available in Microsoft Office now that its value has been proven to the 1½ million people using freetranslation.com every week to translate 25,000 words per minute.

SDL also provides complete MT solutions with integration to human translation and Translation Memory technology, providing high quality translated text at 50% of the price and 90% of the quality of traditional human translations. Companies such as CNH and Pfizer have adopted the combination of SDL technology and services. The combination of human and machine translation directly from the desktop and backed by the world’s leader in translation solutions is a very considerable enabler for global-thinking companies.

“Making our top-of-the-market Enterprise Translation Server available cost-effectively within Office symbolises SDL’s commitment to providing leading-edge translation technologies to mass online markets. This makes software-based translation available to businesses and home users alike”, said Keith Mills, CTO at SDL.

For an annual subscription of $39.95, users of SDLDesktopTranslator can translate between English, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Norwegian, Portuguese and Spanish. To fine-tune their translations users select dictionaries such as Business or IT. The toolbar also provides an access point to human translation in around 50 languages.

*The Times, London, August 2003, and www.internet-magazine.com.