 | Aug 2 2009 |
SYSTEMATIC I'm a teacher and a professional translator. I've been using Ultralingua through all its versions since around 1999 when it was one of the first electronic dicos for Mac on the market. Over the years I've experimented with, but definately not bought, many others on both Mac & PC. I use Ultralingua for Spanish/English, German/English, and German/French, and the monoligual French dictionary and thesaurus. Pros: Simple download and ease of installation. Wide lexical base for collegiate and non specialised pro use. Speed: results as-you-type. OneClick back translations. Lots of examples of language in use. The grammar sections, the conjugator, the embedded forum, and best of all the HOTKEY (which launches the app automatically) are all additional features that don't come with most other dictionaries in the same price range. The flashcard feature is useful in teaching situations. Cons: Minor: Needs some improvement to the language selector system when working in multiple languages on one document. Not enough free upgrades to the lexical databases. Could do with an 'insert' button to put a found result directly into a work document. Summary: I've always appreciated its uncluttered resizable interface and results display. The lexical info is excellent and offers more than most dicos in the same price range, including IPA pronunciation, irregular German plurals, pre and post spelling reform, and regional variations. There may be an occasional word missing, but it is not a intended to be a complete lexis for every language in the range of products, and does not mar its quality. Other dictionaries from large traditional publishers have a similar rate of inaccuracies. Particularly useful is the conjugator although I don' t personally use it much except for rare subjunctives etc. Very stable application, rarely if ever, causes any crashes. Low memory and CPU consumption, and can be left runnig in the background. I think the bad reviews are spam from competitors or people using old versions. I've always had good, friendly service support and a refund for anything that didn't work. Those who don't get replies from customer service probably don't express themselves politely enough. I'm very satisfied, I buy the pay-for upgrades willingly, and I see no need to change.
(Version 7.1.6) | |
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 | Aug 2 2009 |
SYSTEMATIC I'll just add, for those who are missing the American Heritage or Webster's, that the US is not the only place in the world where English is spoken. One of the things I appreciate about Ultralingua however, which is important for my work in TESOL, is its true internationality and equal inclusion of all AE and BE references. The full Ultralingua manual (since v7) gives a complete explanation of their lexical philosophy. Unfortunately, you don't get the manual with the download package, but it's available to download from the forum.
(Version 7.1.6) | |
| Jun 23 2009 |
impossible to get the translation of a link. It will have the same effect as clicking the link. Apple's dictionary can select the word without clicking the link. But maybe this is a private API from Apple. Expensive updates in my opinion, considering that the dictionaries aren't changing very much (even if Ultralingua people do say the contrary) no cross-dictionary translation: if I hover my mouse over a french word, I'd expect for ultralingua to display all possibilities, in all dictionaries I have, instead of displaying "no match in the english dictionary" and me having to manually choose the french dictionary. Example: translating "comment" should give me the english and the french meaning (which is totally different) at a glance, without me having to choose the correct dictionary manually. Generally speaking, it should display all translations in the same window. And the user should be able to decide in which order the matches are displayed (first matches in english dictionary, second in english-french dictionary, and so on...). Just like Apple's dictionary does.... no way to resize this small translation window (the one appearing when pressing the hotkey).
(Version 7.1.4) | |
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 | Jun 3 2009 |
ISCREEN Can confirm "Deja Vue" review and an existing problem about this so called 7.1.5 update. But there is more than this if you follow the d/l link: http://www.ultralingua.com/en/download-mac-dictionary.htm You can read: "Current version: 7.1.5". Have tried to d/l the Ultralingua French-English Dictionary there: http://www.ultralingua.com/downloads/macosx7/Ultralingua-ENG-FRE.dmg.gz The result is a 7.1.4 version. Have emailed the Technical Support about it on the 29 of May without any response yet, in spite of their: "It's been sent! Thank you for submitting your support request. We will reply as soon as possible -- usually within one working day." No World-class software without world-class support, guys!
(Version 7.1.5) | |
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| Jun 1 2009 |
DEJA VUE The "Update" button in my 7.1.4 version does work - but I am getting message that 7.1.4 version is the newest one - besides 7.1.5 is out there for more than three days!? Do I need to go to the web site and to download the update, or Ultralingua update "machine" is not working properly? Ultralingua is among very few greatest language apps (Mac/Leopard). I don't mind paying for upgrades from time to time (but not more than $20). prof. Deja Vue
(Version 7.1.5) | |
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| Mar 28 2009 |
PABLITO I bought almost 2 years ago the version 6. It's a amazing software. I like the interface, and all the features, really simple and direct to use. Whatever I did not upgrade to version 7 because to me it's a little bit expensive. I have two dictionaries. Ultralingua is the best dictionary to Mac nowadays. I hope they keep the good job, with some small improvements, and also a little bit less expensive updates.
(Version 7.1.4) | |
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| Mar 28 2009 |
PABLITO I forgot to say something about the dictionary words. The translation to portuguese is great. Sometimes there is some lacks or missing words, that I usually do online consult in the free dictionary. But it's a good range of words!
(Version 7.1.4) | |
| Feb 3 2009 |
FARIBORZ I'm a very satisfied user of Ultralingua Dictionaries and use constantly three of them: "Collins Pro English", "Collins Pro English Italian" and "Ultralingua English". Although I have other famous dictionaries such as Cambridge and Oxford, I find Ultralingua more useful for my daily work. It's easier to trace a word in its concise dictionaries rather than looking for a needle in a haystack by using bigger dictionaries. Of course if you need to perform a thorough search for the origins of a word and want to know how it is used in a particular context, you might need one of those hefty dictionaries I mentioned before. However, this is not the case for many of us in our daily work. I benefited from a special discount for buying a third dictionary and found their customer support very friendly and helpful. I heartily recommend their dictionaries to all serious users especially those who learn English as a second language. Fariborz AMIRSHAHI - Verona (Italy)
(Version 7.1.2) | |
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| Dec 8 2008 |
UNCOY The upgrade prices and the ridiculous prices for each module (now duplicated with Collins dictionaries as well) should alert anyone with any sense to stay away from this pack of wolves. I see people who upgraded to version 5 have been shut out in Leopard and have to pay another $20 per dictionary. If you are online, there are better versions for each language which you can bookmarklet in your browser for quick use - dict.leo.org for German - English for example. On the other hand, when you find yourself offline Ultralingua (or its equivalent) can be useful. Good news - if you can live with non-Universal Binary, version 4 works just fine under Leopard and doesn't show any signs of breaking in future versions of the OS either. The interface I don't find particularly Windows-like, just very plain-jane. But it works. And that's all we need. Screw Ultralingua. After seeing what they did to the people who upgraded to the most recent version, they will not be seeing any more of my money. Talk about a good concept gone bad.
(Version 7.1.1) | |
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| Jan 10 2009 |
HMURCHISON An Ultralingua rep says this "As a representative of the company, I just need to clarify a couple of points on the upgrade policy. First, we have never charged $25.00 for upgrades: upgrades cost $19.95, and for customers with multiple dictionaries (three or more, as in the case of the previous post), they are $14.95. Of course, upgrades are always painful. But Ultralingua provides many free upgrades during the life of a product, and major version upgrades only occur every 18 months to two years. Finally, if we were only changing the user interface, upgrades would be much cheaper. In fact, our dictionary team is working constantly to improve the dictionary content, adding new words as they enter the languages we cover, and expanding on usage notes, conjugators, and more. We work hard to bring the highest quality for the most accessible price." So if you have 3 or more Dictionary you get a %20 discount in addition to constant evolution of the product in between standard paid upgrades. Is that really blood sucking from a company that starts off at shareware pricing for some solid language tools. I think it's a bit more appropriate to merely comment on the price of upgrades versus centering your whole review around something that is auxiliary to the new features of UL7. Some of us want to know about the latest version who don't own the program and thus would never be bent out of shape about the upgrade prices which you used so eagerly to demonize the company. When you do a review you're providing a service. Anger simply clouds your views and turns your post into a bully pulpit. I hope in the future you'll refrain from posting editorials as reviews. I have taken to heart your points and will make sure I understand the upgrade pitfalls but I have learned absolutely nothing about UL7 with your review and that is unfortunate.
(Version 7.1.1) | |
| Mar 28 2009 |
ODYSSEUS I bought version 6 dictionaries less than a year before version 7 was released with major UI changes, but I would have had to pay an upgrade price per dictionaries. The fact is that I've noticed only minor changes in the dictionaries between versions 5, 6, and 7, so it does seem prohibitively expensive to pay a per-dictionary fee when what is really changing is the UI. The Ultralingua Collins translation dictionaries have superior content to the base Ultralingua brand, but they still can't compare to the dictionaries sold directly by Robert-Collins.
(Version 7.1.4) | |
| Oct 20 2005 |
MERE MORTAL Dictionaries are a necessity, but if you're just trying to learn a language, this program offers an excellent way to figure out how to say something in a foreign language. I use Ultralingua as least as often as I use my online dictionary.
(Version 5.12) | |
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| Oct 7 2005 |
ANONYMOUS Auto connect to internet, add cookies to Safari, I don't like that...
(Version 5.11) | |
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| Sep 18 2005 |
ANONYMOUS Instead of making useless features (widgets) please add words and definitions to your incomplete dictionaries. In English, I miss the American Heritage Dict. so much, in French there is Antidote (thank godness!) and in German, nothing.
(Version 5.11) | |
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 | Aug 26 2008 |
HAPPYVALLEY The American Heritage dictionary is now available on iPhone/iPod touch.
(Version 7.0.2) | |
| May 7 2005 |
ANONYMOUS Confusing DL-opportunities!!!!
(Version 5.0.9) | |
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| Apr 28 2005 |
IZOE Nice and easy to use (like the ability to add your own words), but still does not have an "alternate spellings" feature... I often look up words to confirm how they are spelled. To me, this is a must-have feature for dictionary software.
(Version 5.0.9) | |
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| Feb 26 2005 |
JERRY PETERS Two years ago my company sent me to work in Brazil so I needed to come up to speed on Portuguese fast. I did a lot of research on language translation products because I wanted a product that would work on OS X as well as Palm OS. It also had to have a real Mac interface, not some regurgitated Windows interface. I purchased Ultralingua English-Portuguese for OS X and Palm OS. The dictionaries are fabulous, easy, fast verb conjugation, tons of multiple word uses and examples, instantaneous lookup, and even slang whicn most other dictionaries don't have. What is very refreshing is that Ultralingua supplies updates several times a year and most surprising the Mac version usually is released before the Windows version. I use my dictionaries daily with my web work and for English-Portuguese I would not consider using another product.
(Version 5.0.7) | |
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| Feb 21 2005 |
NET it is interesting when some dictionaries will add bulgarian recognition.
(Version 5.0.7) | |
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| Oct 6 2004 |
ORLANDO Comparisons of this program to printed dictionaries are totally irrelevant, since I yet to find a program selling for less than $50 that comes anywhere NEAR the coverage of a good printed dictionary selling at half the price. Furthermore, I carry around five Ultralingua dictionaries on a single PDA. to carry 5 printed dictionaries instead would be ridiculous. Even version 5 has a ways to go to cover what it should and as well as it should, but I still rate it above any of its competitors.
(Version 5.0.3) | |
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| Nov 4 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Webster's Collegiate 11th ed for $18.86 at Amazon. Includes the dictionary and thesaurus on CD, plus an online subscription. A much better dictionary as well.
(Version 5.0.4) | |
| Oct 6 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Overpriced and slow. American Heritage in Classic is better and faster.
(Version 5.0.3) | |
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| Oct 6 2004 |
HOTMAC For each update I have to pay 20 bucks? I switched back to printed dictionaries. That's cheaper.
(Version 5.0.3) | |
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| Sep 20 2004 |
TSALAGI If you are upgrading, be careful! They will not exchange keys if you order the wrong one. I inadvertantly marked the French dictionary, instead of the French-English (they are right next to each other), and then I'm told, completely after the fact, that I just threw away $19.95. I can't believe it is that difficult to deactivate the mistakenly-purchased key. This is a bad business practice, and as far as I'm concerned, close to theft considering the high price I paid for this dictionary originally.
(Version 5.0.2) | |
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| Dec 13 2004 |
GREG SHENAUT I also checked the wrong box, ordering French-Italian instead of Spanish-English. However, all I had to do (after asking customer support) was to put in a second order for Spanish-English, and send an email with the two order codes, requesting a refund for French-Italian. Not long afterword, a credit for the appropriate amount appeared on my credit card statement.
(Version 5.0.5) | |
| Sep 15 2004 |
KENDASHI Ultralingua 5 is better than Ultralingua 4 even if it is slower and still lacks vocabulary to be a stand alone product. American Heritage (English, OS 9 only) and Antidote MP (French) are better. However Ultralingua is the only serious OS X dictionary in English, German, Latin, Italian and Spanish. Serious but not perfect. A good point, each new version improves the application.
(Version 5.0) | |
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| Sep 10 2004 |
JAMES KATT Ultralingua makes the best translation dictionaries on Mac OS X. The alternatives are old, non-updated, and not as fast to use. The alternatives may not even exist. I write instructions on the fly for my non-English speaking patients using Ultralingua's dictionaries. Others are not as quick to use. I wish though that the full-translation component could be included without having to use an internet connection. This would allow portable, in-the-field, use. This is where Ultralingua is behind its Window's cousins. I wish the all of the verb conjugations would automatically pop-up in a side-bar or separate window when a verb is selected. That would make it much quicker to use.
(Version 5.0) | |
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| Aug 30 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Incomplete and simplist dictionary. Can't match an Harraps. Useless. Not good even for a freeware, but this one cost more than a good dic!!!!
(Version 4.4.8) | |
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| May 30 2004 |
ANONYMOUS This version continues to be non-professional. And not Mac-Standard: Your´re adviced to drag it´s folder into the application folder. Starting the application went wrong, after moving the folder (containing the dictionaries) to an other location. Apple users want to stay free within locating folders wherever they want to!!!! Furthermore: using the German interface, I was told "Sie müssen AM WENIGSTEN einE SprachmodulE in der Mappe "Dictionaries" installieren!" 3 funny mistakes in that single message. Shame on you!! Not very professional. So I´ll look for help elsewhere...
(Version 4.4.8) | |
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| Dec 9 2003 |
CED Ultralingua do it's job for translating words, but is terribly slow compared to version 3 for OS 9. It's very disappointing. Moreover, I wrote to the tech support 7 months ago (it was version 4.32 it's now 4.4) asking them to correct a bug and it's still not done. While I was happy with v3 on Mac OS 9, I'm very disappointed with the X version which could be much better when you think it's on the market for more than one year.
(Version 4.4) | |
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| Oct 20 2003 |
DAVE Ok interface that lets you search words in context on the internet. Provides basic paradigms. However, a dictionary should, before all, be a dictionary and provide as large a portion of the vocabulary of a language as possible. In the case of my French-German dictionary it doesn't even come close. The first versions even lacked a substantial number of core vocabulary words. Things are getting better with the quality of idiomatics sometimes really okay, sometimes bad. Still, the ability to enter your own words makes this into a useful tool over time. Just one example:Once the .dmg opens, an arrow pointing to the UD folder says 'Drag this folder to the Applications folder'. That is translated into German as 'Kopieren Sie diese Mappe auf die Mappe Applications'. Well, I don't really wanna glue one briefcase on another :D. This should read (more literally): 'Ziehen Sie diesen Ordner auf den Ordner Applications' or 'Kopieren Sie diesen Ordner in den Ordner Applications'. Not very professional, indeed not at all.
(Version 4.3.9) | |
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| Dec 9 2003 |
ENGLISH TEACHER IN GERMANY... Just a small thing about Dave's German comments. His translation of the German is also a bit lacking: 'ziehen Sie' is wrong, as 'kopieren' is the correct verb in the German computer lexicon; yes, 'Ordner' is the correct noun, not 'Mappe' (although technically a folio style folder represented by the icon is actually a Mappe...) but there's no mention of 'gluing' ('kleben') anywhere. Above all, all translation requires a good human. Ultralingua products are generally very good at helping, though. Still worth checking out for the newbies.
(Version 4.4) | |
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