A browser and dictionary software designed for linguists, with features and tools tailored for enhancing language-learning and research experiences.
If you're struggling to read foreign texts, Fora Reader is the perfect tool for you. It comes with a simple and dedicated embedded browser, dictionary management, rapid word translations and text annotation, making viewing any web page much easier. As a Java-based application, Fora is cross-platform and internationalized, operating on Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Its interface is available in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese (although the translations are currently in beta stage).
Fora has only one comprehensive English-English dictionary out-of-box, owing to file size and bandwidth constraints. However, it uses various types of inline tooltips to display translations, ensuring reading/browsing activity is never interrupted. The tooltips are tailored around each word to be translated, so there's never any confusion or frustration. Its intuitive functionality is ideal for professional translators, students and web surfers alike, enhancing productivity and communication in languages that aren't native.
You might describe Fora as a tool that virtually converts every document (or website) to an interactive one with a complete integrated glossary. It's an acronym derived from the phrase "Foreign Reader's Aid" and has no connection with the English word "fora" which is the plural form of "forum".
The rationale behind the application is simple – if you don't understand the meaning of around 20% of the words in a paragraph, it becomes increasingly tiring and even infeasible to continue using a regular dictionary. Instead, Fora uses various tooltip-like pop-ups to display translations, which are controlled easily with trivial mouse movements or clicks. Fora is primarily designed as a reading tool that works exclusively with web-based documents, although most documents can be converted to a web-based format (for example, html). Workspace isn't limited to html files or the web.
It's worth noting that starting with version 2, Fora uses Mozilla/XULRunner as the underlying rendering engine. In order to keep the file size reasonable, the XULRunner library isn't included in the application. You'll need to install and register XULRunner v1.9 or newer in order to use Fora. Overall, Fora is an excellent tool for tackling foreign-language documents, and its intuitive functionality is sure to be a hit with users of all levels.
Fora has only one comprehensive English-English dictionary out-of-box, owing to file size and bandwidth constraints. However, it uses various types of inline tooltips to display translations, ensuring reading/browsing activity is never interrupted. The tooltips are tailored around each word to be translated, so there's never any confusion or frustration. Its intuitive functionality is ideal for professional translators, students and web surfers alike, enhancing productivity and communication in languages that aren't native.
You might describe Fora as a tool that virtually converts every document (or website) to an interactive one with a complete integrated glossary. It's an acronym derived from the phrase "Foreign Reader's Aid" and has no connection with the English word "fora" which is the plural form of "forum".
The rationale behind the application is simple – if you don't understand the meaning of around 20% of the words in a paragraph, it becomes increasingly tiring and even infeasible to continue using a regular dictionary. Instead, Fora uses various tooltip-like pop-ups to display translations, which are controlled easily with trivial mouse movements or clicks. Fora is primarily designed as a reading tool that works exclusively with web-based documents, although most documents can be converted to a web-based format (for example, html). Workspace isn't limited to html files or the web.
It's worth noting that starting with version 2, Fora uses Mozilla/XULRunner as the underlying rendering engine. In order to keep the file size reasonable, the XULRunner library isn't included in the application. You'll need to install and register XULRunner v1.9 or newer in order to use Fora. Overall, Fora is an excellent tool for tackling foreign-language documents, and its intuitive functionality is sure to be a hit with users of all levels.
What's New
Version 2.0: N/A