Ultralingua Dictionaries

Easy and effective...

I use it everyday! :-)

Overpriced and mediocre

Yep now its crashing by opening Pfreferences :-(

That would be much better if users can add their own dictionary, can convert from other formats to Ultralingua's formats. More about this, please see babylon for windows, there are many dictionaries made by users which are published at babylon.com. The reason for this is that Ultralingua's authors cannot make dictionaries in all languages such as Vietnamese, there is no English-Vietnamese dictionaries OR Vietnamese-English dictionaries.

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.

The good: - configurable hotkey - good dictionaries The bad: - 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) The ugly: - 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).

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!

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). Many thanks in advance, prof. Deja Vue

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.

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)

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.

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.

Auto connect to internet, add cookies to Safari, I don't like that...

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.

Confusing DL-opportunities!!!!

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.

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.

it is interesting when some dictionaries will add bulgarian recognition.

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.