1. Tool Introduction

Fanyi Dog was launched in August 2017 and is operated by Hangzhou Qingsun Technology Co., Ltd. It supports multi-format document translation, offering a reading experience that retains the original formatting while achieving translation accuracy comparable to human translation. Additionally, Fanyi Dog provides voice translation, image translation, and web page translation.

Fanyi Dog supports 22 document formats including PDF, Word, PPT, Excel, and OFD, and offers online mixed translation for 125 languages. It encompasses multifunctional, multi-format, multi-scenario, and multi-port translation capabilities.

With a professional corpus exceeding 1 billion entries, it covers specialized fields such as finance, agriculture, medicine, biochemistry, and law. To ensure high-precision translation of technical terms, Fanyi Dog also allows users to import their own terminology databases for more comprehensive and accurate translations.

Official website: http://www.fanyigou.com

Users can download the mobile app from the app store.

2. Illustrated Tutorial

After opening the official Fanyi Dog webpage, all functions are clear at a glance. The page design is simple and easy to operate. As shown in Figure 1, the menu bar contains seven sections. Users can choose the corresponding function based on their needs.

2.1 Translation Functions

The translation functions provided in “Translate Now” include “Document Translation”, “Text Translation”, “Image Translation”, and “Human Translation”. In addition, Fanyi Dog offers web page translation and voice translation.

1) Document Translation

A major feature and advantage of Fanyi Dog is that it can completely retain the original format when translating documents, including original font formatting and illustrations, and it also provides a side-by-side reading mode, which is more suitable for literature translation. Users can directly click the “Select Document” button (see Figure 2) to upload files for translation. New users can also enjoy three free document translation opportunities, but can only read the translation results for the first 20 pages. Various download formats are available, but payment is required. The translation results can be viewed in “My Files” → “My Translations” (see Figure 3).

2) Text Translation

Text translation allows users to directly copy the source text into the translation box. The system will automatically translate it into the target language and generate the required target text. By clicking the small triangle symbol next to the language bar (see Figure 4), users can switch between multiple languages, making translation seamless, and the translated text can be copied directly, which is very convenient.

3) Image Translation

The web version of Fanyi Dog’s image translation is similar to the document translation page. Users can click the corresponding “Select Image” button or drag and drop an image to translate it. There are also three free opportunities available. The mobile app’s image translation can use the camera mode for instant translation without manual input, meeting users’ translation needs for travel, shopping, and English learning.

4) Human Translation

Human translation requires placing an order, going through “Submit Order”, “Quote and Payment”, “Translation and Proofreading”, “Receive Translation”, and “Evaluate Translation” to complete the translation. Users can also select the level of translation, categorized into “Reading Level”, “Business Level”, and “Professional Level”, with different pricing based on needs.

5) Web Page Translation

In addition to the four translation types under “Translate Now”, Fanyi Dog also offers web page translation. The entry for web page translation is found in “Home – Drop Down Weekly Selection/Translation Search Click More – Click the top left Translation Search”.

After opening, the page is shown in Figure 5, allowing users to browse websites in various countries and languages without regional or language restrictions, and search for needed content directly in Chinese. Currently, available websites include but are not limited to: Springer, Nature, PubMed, Google Scholar, etc. Taking the English website of the Global Times shown in Figure 5 as an example, after entering the URL https://www.globaltimes.cn/, clicking “Translate Website” yields the results shown in Figure 6:

As can be seen, the translated Chinese version of the Global Times website retains the original website’s format and layout, and each news article can be clicked to view, with specific news content also translated into Chinese for easy reading. Regular users are not limited in the number of translation pages.

In addition to the five translation functions mentioned above, Fanyi Dog also launched voice translation, which has recently been taken offline for re-optimization, with no confirmed relaunch date.

2.2 Adding Personal Terminology Library and Corpus

Besides the 1 billion-level corpus owned by Fanyi Dog’s “Neural Network Intelligent Translation System (NITS)”, users can also create their own terminology libraries and add specialized terms. When translating, selecting the relevant terminology library allows the system to automatically analyze and provide the most accurate translation of technical vocabulary.

When creating a terminology library, users need to first select the industry name and language direction (see Figure 8). After creation, users can “Add Words”, “Import Terms”, “Download Template”, and “Export All”. The imported file must be in Excel format, and users can refer to the downloaded template. Additionally, it is important to note that when creating the table, the headers from the template must be used; otherwise, a prompt will indicate that “the imported file format is not compliant”.

The creation of the corpus follows the same method as the terminology library, and it is also important to adhere to the template format, with corpus content ending with periods, exclamation marks, or question marks; otherwise, the import will fail.

Regular users can create only 100 terms (per industry) and 100 corpus entries. By becoming a member, they can create up to 1000 terms. The import results can be seen in Figure 9.

2.3 Format Conversion

Fanyi Dog also provides various document format conversions. New users can convert up to 20 pages for free on their first use, with additional pages charged at 0.1 yuan per page. Users can become members or purchase conversion packages for further use.

2.4 Paper Plagiarism Check

Fanyi Dog has recently added a paper plagiarism check feature and launched a promotional activity, but it is only available for users who recharge.

3. Learning Insights

Currently, the translation industry is developing rapidly, with an increasing number of translation tasks. In translating large volumes of highly specialized texts, machine translation has become a powerful assistant. Various translation platforms have emerged both domestically and internationally, such as Google Translate, Baidu Translate, and Deepl Translate. The development status of a translation platform is influenced by its translation quality and payment policies. All platforms are striving to develop their own translation systems to make their translations more in line with Chinese reading habits. Therefore, under the premise of comparable translation quality, whether to pay becomes an important influencing factor. Compared to Google Translate, Baidu Translate, and others, Fanyi Dog charges a fee, and the reading volume of translation results is also limited, with many features requiring membership. However, Fanyi Dog has an advantage in literature translation because it fully retains the original format, making it more suitable for those with professional translation needs and better economic conditions. Compared to Youdao, which charges by word, Fanyi Dog charges by page, making it relatively cost-effective, and users can adjust font sizes to minimize translation costs. For students, Fanyi Dog can serve as an alternative translation platform.

Moreover, while collecting and producing the imported “Winter Olympics Terminology List”, I realized the importance of learning programming. Thus, in terms of information literacy, we still have much motivation to learn and significant room for improvement.

Source of Corpus: “Standardized Translation Corpus of Chinese Characteristics”

4. Accompanying Video

Note: This is a learning work for reference only, and corrections are welcome.

Author: Sun Liwei

Edited by: A Zhi