English Writing

Few days ago, WhiteSmoke has launched their new 2010 version – WhiteSmoke writer 2010.

This special launch was accompanied by a big “buzz” – press release, massive newsletter campaign, they even held a contest with a round the world ticket prize for one of their new subscribers…
This was a great chance for me to test this new version and to see whether there is a cover to the big words, or it’s just a sophisticated campaign held by marketing professionals.
It wasn’t an easy task, but eventually I found a free trial hidden somewhere on the web.
WhiteSmoke believes in a “direct purchase” model.
However, there are few free trial links available out there.

To download a free trial of WhiteSmoke Writer 2010, visit here:
http://www.whitesmoke.com/2010-free-trial

Here is what I found on the new version of WhiteSmoke 2010:

*** Installation –
The installation process was fairly easy and friendly.
Basically, you get an exe file which you install on your computer – few “next” clicks, and the software is installed.
I didn’t encounter any problems there.

*** Functionality -
Well, WhiteSmokes gives you an answer in 3 different channels:
grammar, spelling & style.

Grammar – WhiteSmoke knew to add “s” to a verb when it was needed; It also knew to change my “,” into a “.” to correct the sentence structure.
Punctuation is also checked and corrected – if you forgot to start the sentence with a capital letter, WhiteSmoke will change that for you.
tenses are taken care of – If you wrote: “I had went”, WhiteSmoke will change it into “I have gone”.
One case where it didn’t work properly, is when it changed “knew” to “new”, for some reason.
Actually, changing is not the right term.
What WhiteSmoke does is offer you the correction it thinks is right – above the word – and you can choose whether to accept it or not. That just makes things easier if the correction is not acceptable by you.

Spelling –
Whitesmoke’s spell checker is great – found all my typos and spelling mistakes.
However, that’s not too impressive – after all, there are quite a few free spell checkers available online,
the unique thing about Whitesmoke, according to them, is that their spell checker is contextual – it can detect correctly spelled words used in the wrong context.

Style -
This is the coolest feature and what truly distinguish it from other competitors –
WhiteSmoke has a unique synonym thesaurus dictionary, which offers alternative words to choose from.
Basically, you can replace almost any word to its synonym, so if you are stuck with simple words – it can be the perfect solution to improve your writing.

*** New features -
The main new feature of WhiteSmoke 2010 is the Writing Review –
a cool feature that scores the quality of your text – based on few parameters, such as:
Average sentence length, passive sentences, complexed words, passive words, etc.
Then it gives you a score (out of 10) that reflects the quality of your writing.

*** GUI –
Friendly user interface is very important for me.
Most of the programs I tried in this field were not as friendly as WhiteSmoke software.
I have to admit they did a great job there.
Clean, intuitive, easy to navigate, 3 different colors for each channel –
green for grammar, red for spelling, and blue for style.
They really put an effort in the user’s point of view, and that’s definitely something to appreciate.
The only thing that did disturb me, is the lack of “Cancel” button, just “Check” and “Apply”.
Perhaps in the next version…

*** Support –
The internet is full with suspicious websites that sell and disappear…
Fortunately, WhiteSmoke isn’t one of them.
I sent an email to their support team, and got an instant reply that my question is being processed.
After a couple of hours, a guy named “Anthony” replied back with a satisfactory answer on the question I asked.
They promise to reply within 24 hours, and They also have a phone number to call to.

*** Compatibility -
One of the major issues with any software industry.
How frustrating it can be, to find out that the software you just purchased, doesn’t work with your MAC, or causes crashes when working with VISTA…
In their website, WhiteSmoke promise they work on “any text editor”.
I haven’t tried them all, but WhiteSmoke is working with the major applications I tried –
MS Office, Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and other email providers, the new 2010 version is also working with Word Perfect and Open office, that’s a big advantage they have on their competitors.

*** Extras –
We all love to get some extra bonuses for things we buy.
WhiteSmoke gives their 600+ ready-to-use templates as a bonus, which can save a lot of time.
Basically, these are prepared documents you can use for any purpose, from a thank you letter to a complaint letter, you will find there almost anything…
All you need to do is to choose the right templates and fill in the missing details.
Apart from that, WhiteSmoke gives their users a free access to their English portal, where they have many useful tips and lessons of English.

*** Price -
That’s the painful part…
The official price of the General version is $89.95.
Not cheap, if we take into consideration that MS Word includes a free spell checker.
Regarding to the value you get here – that’s definitely a reasonable price.
The good part is, that it’s a life time purchase. No need to renew it each year.
Also, they often have some very attractive deals, where they offer up to 80% discount on certain packs…

I think that for a good piece of software it’s worth paying this amount, but those who cannot afford it – will have to wait until Bill Gates will purchase this company, or maybe Google…

That’s my review on WhiteSmoke Writer – the new version of WhiteSmoke 2010.

To get the full version, or learn more about it, visit here:
http://www.whitesmoke.com/2010