Quick Translate
Quick Translate is the fastest way to use Playto: drag over what you want to read and translation starts right there. No pack to pick, nothing to configure, and it works on any app's screen.
Starting one
Press [Fixed area] or [Cursor] on the Home screen, then drag over the part of the screen you want translated. That's the whole setup.
- Fixed area — pins the dragged rectangle in place and keeps translating it. Good for subtitles and message windows.
- Cursor — a box of the dragged size follows your mouse. Good for tooltips and menus.
The target isn't limited to game windows. Anything on your screen can be translated where it is — browser games, wiki pages, launchers. For the browser-game case in detail, see how to translate browser games.
Playto stays in the system tray when the window is closed, so Quick Translate is always two clicks away — from the tray icon you can show the window, start or stop translation, or quit. Launch-at-startup can be enabled in Settings.
What stays, what doesn't
Quick Translate sessions are throwaway by design: they don't appear in your Journal. Two things do stay:
- Saved words — with their review schedule, in the same word book as everything else.
- The translation log — every line that was read and translated.
Grab the words that catch your eye, let the rest go.
Quick Translate vs. Learning Session
- Quick Translate — translate on the spot; only saved words and the log remain. For quick reads and casual play.
- Learning Session — learn while it's recorded to a Pack: history, album and review build up over time.
Same pipeline, different weight. A game you're settling into deserves a learning session; everything else on your screen is Quick Translate territory. For full-window capture inside a game client, see Window Mode.
Region tips for clean results
How you drag the region affects recognition stability:
- Keep the edges off the text — let the region's edges rest on blank margin instead of cutting through characters.
- Give it vertical room — box the whole text with a little margin above and below; a slightly taller region beats a tight one.
- Exclude the name plate and UI — capturing just the dialogue reads cleanest.
While text is still animating in, or when a dense multi-line subtitle is on screen, recognition can briefly flicker before it settles — that's expected.