Babylon Pro 5.0

Babylon-Pro is a powerful information tool that provides information, translations and conversions for any word or number you click on. To use Babylon, simply click on a word using the mouse button chosen during installation, and the Babylon-Pro window will pop-up, providing you with instant translation and information about the word or expression.

Babylon-Pro automatically recognizes the word, expression or value you point your mouse at, regardless of which application displays the word, or where it appears on your screen. You can get translations for words, convert currencies, measurements and times, and even listen to the pronunciation of the word you searched for.
Babylon-Pro can also help users write better. With a variety of tools such as cross translation, conjugations display and direct paste, Babylon-Pro makes writing English text simple and easy for people not fluent in English.
For users who need to correspond in English, but are not fluent in English, Babylon-Pro 5.0 provides a complete set of invaluable tools for improving their writing:

Cross Translation - Babylon-Pro 5.0 helps users find the most suitable English word for their sentence. For example, a French user writing an email needs the English equivalent of the French word “aller”. This word can be translated to English as go, move, travel or pass. When translating the word “aller”, Babylon-Pro 5.0 will display each possible English translation, alongside its corresponding translation back to French;
Conjugations - For every English term, Babylon-Pro can display a complete list of conjugations (inflections) in all possible tenses and forms, together with their description in the user’s native language. The user can directly paste the appropriate conjugation into his edited document;
New and improved user interface - The Babylon-Pro user interface has been re-designed to sport a fresh new look. It also incorporates numerous usability enhancements compared to previous Babylon-Pro versions, based on input received from users over the years.
Direct Paste - Automatically paste terms or conjugations (inflections), in a single click, directly into any word processing application from inside Babylon-Pro;
Spelling Alternatives - Babylon-Pro will offer spelling alternatives for words that are misspelled, in any language;
Keyboard Activation - Advanced users can also activate Babylon-Pro using only the keyboard, helping them to keep their hands on the keyboard while typing.

System Requirements :
Babylon-Pro 5.0 is compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. Babylon-Pro 5.0 is not compatible with Windows 95 or with Windows NT 4.0.
It is recommended to have at least 15MB of free RAM and 5MB free on your hard drive. Each glossary that you install requires additional disk space, depending on the size of the glossary.


Opening the results window
There are a few ways to open the results window:
Click using the mouse activation button on a word or term. This will open the results window and will automatically find the word or term clicked on.
Click using the mouse activation button on an empty screen region, without a word or term ,e.g. the Windows desktop. This will open an empty results window.
Press the keyboard activation shortcut. This will open an empty results window.
Click on the Babylon-Pro system tray icon. This will open an empty results window.
Right-Click on the Babylon-Pro system tray icon and select "Open" from the menu. This will open an empty results window.

Searching for Terms on the Web
For each term you search in Babylon-Pro, it is possible to perform a search using common Internet search engine. In order to search for a term in Babylon-Pro, click on the ‘Web Search’ link in the Sidebar. This will open the default web browser with the default search engine, and automatically perform a search on the term.
You can define the default search engine in the configuration dialog.

Cross Translation
Cross translation is a special type of definition display, optimized for use by users whose native language is not English, but need to write in English. This special display is shown only when both Babylon dictionaries for a specific language are installed (e.g. Babylon German-English and Babylon English-German). If you have only one of the two dictionaries installed, see below "Downloading cross translation dictionaries".
It is possible to see cross translation whenever translating a non-English term, i.e. French term, and the appropriate dictionaries are installed.
In a cross translation display, for each word in the English translation, Babylon-Pro displays the translation back to the term language.

Cross Translation Actions
For each term displayed in a cross translation display, there are several actions you can perform. To open the actions menu, move the mouse cursor over the term text and click on the text. The actions menu will open with the following options:

Copy - Will copy the term to the Windows clipboard.

Find - Will search for the term.

Paste to "application name" - Babylon-Pro remembers the last application that was in focus (in the foreground). This action will paste the term text directly to that application, at the text cursor position. Babylon-Pro uses the standard Windows paste mechanism, so the text will be pasted in its default format, as defined by the target application.

Conjugations button
When the focus is on the term text in a cross translation display, a small button appears next to the term text. This button is the conjugations button. When you click on it, it opens the conjugations form for this term.

Conversions Form
The conversion unit is selected at the bottom left of the dialog and is divided to categories and sub-categories. Available conversion categories are "Currencies", "Measurements" and "Time".

After selecting the "Currencies" conversion, you can now select sub-categories by abbreviations (USD - US Dollar), country names (United States - Dollar), or currency name (Dollar, US).

If you select "Measurements", you can choose between angles, area, data storage, density, energy, force, kitchen measures, length, power, pressure, temperature, time, torque, velocity, volume and weight.
When you select "Time", you can either convert by time zones (GMT, PST, etc.), or by local times (United Kingdom, Los Angeles, etc.)
After selecting the conversion categories and sub-categories, you can select the actual units you wish to convert from and to, and enter the source conversion value.

The Conversions form title shows two buttons:
Last Used - Will open a list of the last nine conversions performed, and enable selection of a previous conversion, to be performed again when selected.
Calculator - Opens the Windows Calculator application.

What are Glossaries?
A glossary is a list of terms and definitions. Glossaries are built with the Babylon Builder and are viewed using Babylon-Pro. Glossaries can show many different types of information, i.e. dictionaries, encyclopedias, photo albums, etc.
Whenever you query for terms, Babylon-Pro will initially search in all glossaries defined in your glossary options dialog.
Babylon-Pro is installed by default with glossaries based on the language you specified during the setup process and based on your computers' default language. In addition to these glossaries, there is a wide range of glossaries that you can choose from to enhance your search results.

Glossaries can be installed in two ways:
Download (Local) - Install glossaries locally. The glossaries will be downloaded to your local machine and will always be available.
Subscribe - Install glossaries for online use only. A glossary you subscribe to will only show results when you are connected to the internet. If you wish to work with a specific glossary when Offline, you must download it. Glossaries that you subscribe to might take slightly longer to show results.

Note: Some glossaries are only available for online (subscribed) use and cannot be downloaded locally.

Adding New Glossaries
In order to add new glossaries, you need to be connected to the internet.
The "add glossaries" dialog
Adding glossaries is done from the "add glossaries" dialog. This dialog can be opened from the glossary options dialog, or from the menu.
The "add glossaries" dialog will present the user with a selection of glossaries to download, based on his user interface language.

Installing From the Babylon Web Site
Using a web browser, you can also browse to the Babylon Dictionaries and Glossaries web page at http://www.babylon.com/gloss and see the complete list of all available glossaries, organized in categories.

Working with Glossaries
The glossary options dialog allows you to manage and configure your glossaries. You can open the glossary options dialog from the menu, or from the Sidebar.
The glossary options dialog shows the glossaries currently installed with Babylon-Pro.

The list of glossaries is divided into two sections:
Installed glossaries - showing glossaries that are installed locally.
Subscribed glossaries - showing glossaries that will show results only when connected to the internet.

Viewing more details
Clicking the "More details" button will show details on each of the glossaries installed, such as the glossary author name, number of definitions, glossary description, last update and description.

Downloading subscribed glossaries
From this list, you can download for Offline use glossaries that you are currently only subscribed to (for online use).
Select the subscribed glossary you wish to download and click on the "Download" button. The glossary will be downloaded and installed locally.

Enabling and Disabling Glossaries
Whenever you begin a search using Babylon-Pro, Babylon-Pro first searches the active glossaries defined in the glossary options dialog. When a glossary is active you will see the square next to it checked. To deactivate a glossary, click on this square and un-check it.

Removing Glossaries
To remove glossaries from the glossary options dialog, select the glossary you want to delete from the list and click on the "Remove" button. You can also delete by selecting the glossary and pressing "Delete" on your keyboard.

General Tab
Run Babylon when I log on to Windows - Un-check this option if you do not want Babylon-Pro to start automatically when you turn on or restart your computer.

Term History - Clicking on the "Clear History" button will clear the history of search terms and results.

Web Search - Babylon-Pro will use the search engine selected here for performing web searches.

Advanced button - The advanced button opens the OCR optimization dialog.

One of the mechanisms Babylon-Pro employs in order to recognize on-screen terms requires about 30 minutes CPU to "learn" the client system. If this process is not finished when you close Babylon, it will continue from where it was interrupted the next time Babylon-Pro is activated. In both these cases Babylon-Pro is running at a very low priority, which means that if there is ANY other program that needs CPU it will get it. When you see that Babylon-Pro is taking 100% CPU that means that nothing else is using your CPU, and therefore Babylon-Pro takes all of it.

This property controls the time Babylon-Pro will spend to "learn" the client system. If optimization target level is set to "low", Babylon-Pro will not perform any optimization. In some cases, Babylon-Pro might not recognize a word on the screen, because this optimization was not performed. If the level is set to "High", it will perform all possible optimizations, but will take longer to "learn" the system.

Appearance Tab
Font settings

Select the font you want to use to display results. The default font is selected according to the system configuration.

You can also choose between 7 present font sizes for the results text. The default font size is Medium.

Other interface elements such as the menus and Sidebar remain in a fixed size and cannot be configured.

User Interface Language

Select the language you want Babylon to use when displaying messages and dialogs. The default language is the one chosen and used during the installation process.

Let Babylon decide on window position- The Babylon-Pro results Window will automatically open in the best position on screen to display the results.

Let Babylon decide on window size - The Babylon-Pro results Window will automatically open in the best size to display the results.

Show the Babylon window on top of other application - The Babylon window will always be visible, even when other applications are in focus.

When the mouse is moved away, hide window by - After viewing a search result in the Babylon-Pro Window, the results screen will automatically minimize itself ("Minimizing") or close ("Closing") when you move the mouse away from it.

Find Tab
Mouse Activation

Click on the "Change" button to select the mouse setting you wish to assign to Babylon. Follow the instructions in the dialog that opens.

Keyboard Activation

Click on the "Change" button to select the keyboard shortcut you wish to assign to Babylon. Follow the instructions in the dialog that opens.

Target Languages - Mark the languages in which you wish to receive your results when you search the Babylon Index.

Note: This option refers to results you receive only after using the "online glossaries" option.

Connection Tab
In this screen you can configure your connection to the Babylon Server and enable the Babylon-Pro Auto-Update feature.

Proxy Setting

(Applicable only when using a proxy server or a firewall to connect to the internet)

Use automatic proxy settings - When you first try to connect to the Babylon Server, Babylon-Pro will attempt to read your connection settings from your web browser, so that you will not need to configure your settings manually.

Connect through Proxy/Firewall server - This option lets you configure the server address and port you will use for communicating with Babylon online. Babylon-Pro uses the standard HTTP port (80) to connect to our servers, and there is no need to enable other ports on your server.

Remember password for authentication proxy - Check this option if your proxy servers require entering a username and password when connecting.

Online updates

Please note: These options are relevant only to glossary updates. Whenever you connect to the internet, Babylon-Pro also checks for new version upgrades and updated currency rates, even when these options are not active.

Check for updates - Click on "Update Now" to check for glossary updates.

Enable online updates - This option enables the Babylon-Pro Auto-Update feature. Whenever you connect to the web, Babylon-Pro will automatically check for glossary updates. This option regards only glossary and dictionary updates.

Prompt before automatic content updates - Checking this option will download and install available glossary and dictionary updates, as soon as they become available from Babylon servers. If you do not enable this option, Babylon-Pro will alert you when there are available updates with a blinking icon in your system tray. You will be able to download those updates by double clicking on the blinking icon.
This option is available only after checking the ‘Enable online updates’ option.

Voice Tab
Say-it Settings

Enable Text-To-Speech - To activate the text to speech mechanism. When this option is not checked, you will not be able to hear pronunciation.

Use DirectSound - On some configuration, you will need to enable this option to hear pronunciation.

Speed - Select the dictation speed of the text-to-speech voice.

Language – Babylon-Pro will detect available text-to-speech engines on the client, and allow the user to choose between the available languages.

Voice - Select the voice you wish to use from the available voices.

Menu overview
The menu provides access to customization options as well as common operations. The menu can be opened by clicking on the Babylon-Pro system tray icon, or by clicking on the menu button in the results window.

Open

This option will open the results window.

Configuration

This option will open the Babylon-Pro Configuration Dialog.

Glossaries/Glossary Options

This option will open the glossary options dialog

Glossaries/Add Glossaries

Choosing this option will open the add glossaries dialog.

Glossaries/Install glossary from disk

If you have any Babylon Glossary files saved on your local drive - glossaries that you have created, downloaded or received from other glossary authors - use this option to install them in Babylon. Simply select the glossary file and Babylon-Pro will automatically run a short installation process after which you will be able to use the glossaries.

Conversions

Will open the conversions utility.

Enter License

Select this option if you are using the Babylon-Pro Trial Version and have purchased Babylon-Pro and wish to enter your license code to activate the full product.

This option is also used when purchasing upgrades, maintenance, Premium Content glossaries and any other product that requires a license.

Help/Babylon Help

Launches the Babylon-Pro Help File.

Help/Support

Will open the Babylon support page on the Babylon web site.

Help/Registration

You can update your registration details with Babylon. Submitting the form will update your details on the Babylon Servers next time you are online.

Help/About Babylon-Pro

Shows you the current version and build of Babylon-Pro that you are using.

Disable

Choosing ‘Disable’ will cancel the mouse click button and the keyboard activation shortcut. Babylon-Pro will still be available if you open it from the system tray icon. When Babylon-Pro is disabled, the system tray icon is grayed out. If you want to enable it again, select ‘Enable’ from the menu.

Exit

Selecting this option will close Babylon-Pro altogether. Babylon-Pro can be re-started by activating it from the Windows Start Menu, or by running babylon.exe from the folder in which you installed Babylon-Pro.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Babylon-Pro actions can be performed using the keyboard. Most keyboard shortcuts cannot be customized, except for the results window shortcut. The list of shortcut keys configured is:

Opening the results window (F10) - The default shortcut key for this action is F10. It can be customized from the configuration dialog.

Closing the results window (Esc) - Pressing Esc will close the results window.

Open the menu (Alt+M) - Open the Babylon-Pro menu.

Moving focus to the term box (Alt+D) - Whenever the Babylon-Pro results window is open, pressing this shortcut will move the focus to the term box, enabling the user to type a term to find.

Back (Alt + Left Arrow) - Shows the previous entry in the term history.

Forward (Alt+Right Arrow) - Show the next entry in the term history.

Tab - Pressing tab will cycle through all tab stops. The term box is the first tab stop. Each link and button in the results pane is also a tab stop.


Home page URL : http://www.babylon.com/