WhiteSmoke is a tool to help you create documents and make the writing
more interesting to read. The key word is ‘enrichment’-if you choose to
install the toolbar that WhiteSmoke provides, this is the word that
appears. Text enrichment is what the software delivers. WhiteSmoke
takes your text and suggests alternative words and, where appropriate,
adjectives, you could insert. The aim is to brighten up what you write.
The style is international and it will accept transatlantic spellings.
It does the basics of fixing grammar and spelling rather as your
existing word-processor’s spell-checker will do. It then goes beyond the
checkers built into the likes of MS Word by suggesting possible adjectives
to add. It takes a few minutes to get used to the colour-coding, but once
you have mastered that you can change and insert words and phrases. You
can invoke the checker by pressing the F2 key.
The suggestions cannot be followed without some thought. In one
document WhiteSmoke offered a single alternative for the word
‘court’. It proposed changing ‘court’ to ‘woo’. This would have produced
the expression ‘Chinese woo official’ instead of ‘Chinese court official’.
So you must pay attention when making substitutions. This is not intended
as a criticism. WhiteSmoke comes up with a lot of suggestions –
some work, some don’t. It makes you think about what you are writing.
If you have to write a load of emails, there are dozens of templates
provided based around a range of personal and business topics. You
just select the most appropriate text, make the adjustments, run
WhiteSmoke to check the document and hit Send. I found this
very useful for the many semi-standard emails business requires, and I
looked to see if I could edit these templates or add my own, but could not
find that facility. This is designed as an office tool because it requires
you to be on-line, so you will have to wait till the laptop is connected
to the web before you can use the facilities.
The cost is $79.95, about £45 or €66. There is a 30 day money-back
guarantee. It was easy to download and install. WhiteSmoke is quite
‘pushy’ so it is easy to find on the toolbar and screen, where it installs
itself. It also behaves itself and can be uninstalled using the control
panel on your PC. Only one glitch was encountered when WhiteSmoke
was shut down mid-sentence but control of the cursor was quickly restored
by saving the document. WhiteSmoke sulked and refused to offer any
suggestions until the system re-booted but then returned to normal.
So, if you are looking for a tool to improve your productivity
writing business emails and short letters, WhiteSmoke has a great deal to
offer. It will provide you with templates that will save typing time
and then prompt you with numerous suggestions to extend and enhance the
words employed. In this context, it is easy and fun to use. However, it
is not the tool to use for your novel when you have already crafted the
words.
www.whitesmoke.com/
