ABBYY Lingvo X5

ABBYY Lingvo X5 integrates a dictionary tool for users of all ages who want to learn a new language or improve their skills when it comes to reading and writing. It covers many languages such as German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, Portuguese and Latin, not to mention different fields like medical and law.

The setup procedure does not require too much assistance but it takes a while to finish. As far as the interface is concerned, ABBYY Lingvo X5 is wrapped in a regular window with a clear-cut structure.

You can get started by selecting the source and output language (there is a swap button to quickly interchange them) along with the dictionary type between engineering, general, information science, law and economics, science, and all of them. New bookshelves can be created in order to fill them with custom entries.

All available words are listed in the main frame and you can use a search function to locate something in particular via the physical or virtual keyboard. Translation is performed with one click and you can look up words in online dictionaries and print information. Spelling suggestions may be enabled.

It is possible to change the interface language and country, create an app icon and place it in the system tray area for quick access, disable automatic searches, alter the font type and size in the word list, tweak the main window transparency, customize colors for cross-references, examples, stress, labels and search results, and more.

There were no unpleasant surprises in our tests, since ABBYY Lingvo X5 did not hang, crash or pop up error messages. It has a good response time to commands and runs on low CPU and RAM, so it does not put a strain on computer performance. Thanks to its intuitive structure and options, this application should meet the requirements of most users looking to study a foreign language.