Typically, I blog about writing craft books I love. Today I want to review SmartEdit, a free editing software program that I recently tried out.
After I copied and pasted my manuscript into the document window, the program generated several lists, including clichés and adverbs used, and words and phrases used more than twice (you can adjust the frequency setting). While I checked out each cliché and adverb indentified, I limited my search of crutch words and phrases to those that were overly used or were unique enough to be noticeable when mentioned more than once or twice. Otherwise, I could have spent a year trying to fix something that wasn’t a wreck, or end up writing out my voice.
I didn’t use the program quite as suggested. I identified what word or phrase I wanted to search for in my document. After using the FIND function in Word, I then edited the word or phrase in my document (instead of in SmartEdit). It made more sense doing it that way.
I had trouble loading my document onto SmartEdit. According to the website, you save your manuscript as a text file and load it onto SmartEdit. It didn’t work for me. I had to copy and paste the entire document into the program for it to work. What the website also doesn’t mention is that you have to open your analysis in Word after you close SmartEdit. You can still use the lists in SmartEdit after you generate them, but you have to copy and paste and generate the list again if you close the program without saving the analysis first. Another thing I recommend doing is after you open the text file, save it as a .doc or .docx file. That way you can place a bookmark at the last place you were at when you have to stop working on your edits. You can’t bookmark a text file.
Overall, I loved SmartEdit and recommend it to anyone who writes.
Have you tried SmartEdit or one of the other similar editing software programs available?
(edit: two writers have mentioned that their virus protection software won't allow them to download the program. This is a recent issue. I use the same security software and it didn't have an issue with it at the time I downloaded the program.)