We’re delighted to announce that DeepL machine translation is now available free of charge in both Help+Manual and HelpXplain. The new free API developer subscription from DeepL allows you to translate up to 500,000 characters per month at no cost. This will almost always be enough for HelpXplain projects, which typically contain very little text, but it will also cover most Help+Manual projects.
Why DeepL translation is a (very) big deal
Until recently, even the best and most expensive machine translation was pretty awful and only good enough for basic understanding, at best. DeepL is different. Its advanced machine learning produces results that are almost unbelievably good, and very close to what you would get from a professional human translator. Combine this with the new free API keys and it is nothing short of revolutionary.
You can now get high-quality translation of as much text as an entire novel, every month, free of charge, between all these languages: Bulgarian, British English, American English, Chinese (simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish. Doing this with human translators would be prohibitively expensive, particularly with languages like Russian, Japanese and Chinese.
Where DeepL support is available
Support for DeepL in Help+Manual with both free and paid subscriptions is currently available in all European Union countries, the USA, Canada and Japan.
How to get your free DeepL API subscription
First download and install the updated (beta) version of Help+Manual and/or HelpXplain with support for the new free subscription keys:
Then visit this page at the DeepL website, which allows you to choose a free or subscribed key directly:
https://www.deepl.com/en/pro.html#developer
Setting up for DeepL translation in Help+Manual and HelpXplain
This couldn’t be easier. Once you have your key from DeepL you just need to enter it in Help+Manual and/or HelpXplain. In Help+Manual you select the DeepL Plugin in the Project tab, and then the About section. In HelpXplain you select the Translation section in the File menu.
After entering your DeepL API key, you then just need to select the correct base URL for your key type (free or subscribed). Then you’re ready to go.