When browsing the Web, you’ll probably open a few sites that aren’t in English. Consequently, browsers such as Google Chrome have their own translator tools. However, the Google Translator doesn’t have a hotkey that you can press to translate a text selection. To translate text with a hotkey, check out the QTranslate software.

Click here to go to the QTranslate software home page. From there, you can download and install the software to Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. Just press the “Download QTranslate 5.3.3″ button to save the setup wizard and add the utility to Windows. You will then find a QTranslate 5.3.3 icon in system tray when the program is running (kindly refer to the image shown below).

Next, open a web page that isn’t in English. Select some text on the page, and press the Ctrl + Q hotkey. A QTranslate pop-up window will then open that translates the text selection to English as below.

At the top right corner of that pop-up window there is a headphone icon. When you click on that option, it plays an audio narration of the text. You can also listen to any selected text on a website by pressing the Ctrl + E keyboard shortcut.

Note that QTranslate isn’t just limited to browser software. Open a word processor, select some text and press the Ctrl + Q hotkey. That will also translate the selected word processor text.

Right-click the QTranslate 5.3.3 system tray icon and select QTranslate to open the window below. There you can copy and paste text into the window to translate it. Paste (with Ctrl + V) the text into the text box in the top half of the window and then press the Translate button.

Select Options from the QTranslate context menu to open the window below. That includes various customization options for the software. For example, you can choose alternative window themes by selecting Appearance and the Default drop-down list. Then select an alternative theme from the drop-down list as below and press Apply.

Overall, QTranslate is a great translator utility. With its hotkeys you can translate text more quickly. The  audio text option is also a handy addition to the software.