TranslateIt have kindly provided 5 free one year licenses to Mac OS X Tips readers. Check out the bottom of this post for a chance to win one of them.

TranslateIt is a multilingual dictionary for looking up words and translating them into different languages. When it first starts up, you are presented with a list of languages to choose from. After selecting the ones you want, TranslateIt will then translate any word you give it into those languages. It can even translate common phrases. Translation of long portions of text is also possible, but this requires an internet connection as it is performed by a server.

While all these features are useful, they aren't anything you can't do with Google. Where TranslateIt's strength lies is in its integration with Mac OS X and many applications.

Dy default, TranslateIt has scanning mode enabled. This works much like the Command-Control-D access to the dictionary, but it doesn't require you to press a keyboard shortcut. If you hold the mouse over text in any Cocoa application (TextEdit, Safari, Mail, etc.), a small window will appear with a translation of the text. This might get annoying, so if you don't want it to always appear you can enable and disable it from the TranslateIt icon in the menubar.

An alternative to the scanning mode that works just as well is the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-M which works from any application. Simply select a word, press Command-Shift-M and TranslateIt will pop up and translate the word.

For non-cocoa applications, there is a contextual menu item so you can right click and choose “Look up in TranslateIt!”. There is also a separate plugin to enable TranslateIt for Firefox.

One feature that caught my eye especially is the words quiz, which looks like a great tool for learning new words. As you are translating words, you can add certain ones to the history by pressing Command-Shift-A. Once you have enough in your history, starting the words quiz from within TranslateIt brings up a small multiple choice quiz to help you learn the translations of the words you have added.

As well as the basic dictionaries included with TranslateIt, some more specialist dictionaries are included on their site. For example, “Russian Psychological Dictionary”, “PC user dictionary” and “Everyday English Expressions” are all available to download for free.

For a chance to win one of 5 one-year licenses for TranslateIt, answer the following question:

What is computer in Russian?
Once you know the answer, head over to this page to enter.