Test Driving The Editors

[Perpetual Man]

At the top of the page we have:

The main taskbar. This is much the same as what appears in word, you can use it to open or create documents, and by pressing the 'Run checks' you set the whole thing in motion once you have opened your document. A difference here are the tabs across the page.

These give you access to a simple Word Processor, ideal for editing, rewriting ore, I guess, writing something from scratch.

Export Reports & Print Reports allows you to do just that, create a hardcopy of what the editor has found, either as something like an excel spreadsheet, or just printed. This could be handy if you are going to edit in a different Word Processor.

 

[Perpetual Man]

There are three other main panels/frames:

This shows you all the things that have been checked and by clicking on one of the highlighted lines you are able to see what has been found in the lower frame (picture to follow). The 'Select Checks' tab allows you to add or remove which lists you want used.

With the adverb usage check in action the lower frame shows just what it has found. Here it has found three instances of the word 'slowly' in the document listing the lines they appear in. By clicking on the line in question you are taken to the part of the document where it appears and you can then change it if so desired. You can then move onto the next word etc.

On the right hand side of the page is a third frame that allows you to see the document properties, telling you the little things you want to know - word count etc. Anything highlighted/underlined means you can double click to be shown a list.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've been through the program and the results it gives are very much comparable to it's MSWord sister. It finds the same things in the same amounts. The main difference is that it only has a minimal word processor as an integral part of it, so you do not have all the features you would get from a bigger processor (love it or hate it).

Even though this seems to be the main program it is in fact cheaper than the MSWord version, available at $57.00 so about £37.00.

The SmartEdit site is here:

SmartEdit

There is also (phew) a free version too, Smart-Edit Lite which I will look at next.

 

[Perpetual Man]

The free version of SmartEdit is called SmartEdit Lite and it literally does what it says on the label.

It is built on the same engine as the full version, but does not do as many checks (SE does 16 SEL does 7).

The layout and control of the program is not quite as good or user friendly as the paid for version, but it is accessible and does what you want. It is not as in depth as the full SE but for a brief check it can do the job. It checks adverbs, monitored words, repeated phrases and repeated words (including the number of times you have used each), clichés and dialogue tags.

I did miss the fact that it does not check for profanities.

The other thing that is readily apparent is that it is not as compatible with writing software as the full version. In fact it will only open text files (.txt) and RTF files (.rtf).

It seems odd that it can't even open anything else, but there you go. Still, it's not too much of a hardship to open a word processor, and save your document to one of those formats. You would have to do it in reverse too, once editing is complete. It does, however, accept copying and pasting from other sources, so that is the quickest way around it!

 

[Perpetual Man]

As far as SmartEdit goes I think it looks the whole deal, does the job and does it as well as a program can. It certainly tidied the short story I ran through it.

The MSWord integrated version comes out on top. Word might not be the most popular processor out there, but by combining SmartEdit with it you get immediate access to all the Word features too.

The standalone paid for program comes in next. It certainly does the job but the word processor that comes with it is basic to say the least.

The Lite program is last. This does not mean it is bad, just in comparison to it's more inclusive siblings. I'm going to use it soon on a bigger project and see how it goes. I'll look at another program later.

Next up will probably be the highly acclaimed Whitesmoke Editor

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've just found something out about Smart Edit, putting aside the cost of buying it there is something unusual and positive in using the trial version.

I forget how many days free trial it is (14?) but normally when you get a trial of a program that is active for 14 (or whatever days) it runs for 14 consecutive days. So if you start the trial on the 1st of the month it runs out at the end of the 14th.
Even if you don't have time to use it for ten of those days.

It looks like SmartEdit actually gives you the fall 14 days no matter what. I've left it since I played around with it above, reopened it to look at something - this is nearly two months after I last used it. It's still allowing me use for another six days.

Figured that was might friendly of it.