Review: Whitesmoke writing tool

Whitesmoke writing support software is designed to help people improve their English or tailor their text to a specific style, namely legal, medical and even online dating.

However, anyone expecting to develop the smooth tongue of Casanova or literary grace of Dickens overnight should think again.

Following a short installation Whitesmoke integrates with most text-based software running on your PC, including Word, Outlook and Messenger, allowing you to check and correct your text at the click of a button.

It’s neither fast nor seamless though. A couple of pages of text in Word takes around 30 seconds to check, at which point you make modifications in a very similar way to Microsoft Office’s spelling and grammar tools - nothing particularly innovative there.

The interface is also frustrating to use as it disables the text application you have running until you tell it to either accept or cancel the proposed changes.

In terms of performance it’s really nothing special and we had a hard time discerning any substantial changes from the different modes or styles of writing, aside from alterations via a simple thesaurus.

Whitesmoke also suggests its software is ideal for foreign students or those with English as a second language.

In an attempt to directly test this we were dismayed to see it suggesting proposed changes for the sentence “Me England come today and learn words still bad” as “Me England comes today and learn words still bad” - still bad indeed.

What’s more, you’re offered alternative choices for specific words or spellings (some of which make no sense at all) and if your grasp of English is poor you’d be ill-prepared to make such decisions anyway.

Regular updates to the service are available as improvements are made, but on the basis of this test we find it very hard to recommend.

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