Grammarian PRO X

[Welles Goodrich]

The ReadMe Description:

What is Grammarian PRO X?
Grammarian PRO X checks grammar and spelling errors interactively (as-you-type) or batch checking (all-at-once). Grammarian PRO X also automatically corrects (AutoCorrect) certain spelling errors interactively such as "teh" for "teh". And, Grammarian PRO X automatically types predetermined phrases (AutoType) such as "btw" for "by the way", etc. Grammarian PRO X now includes a 400,000 word dictionary that can be used to look up words as you make corrections. Other Grammarian PRO X great features: Parts of Speech, Linear Sentence Diagraming, Word Frequency, Readability Statistics, and more.

My Experience:

I have been using Grammarian Pro X for about a week and would suggest strongly that it is well worth the 'introductory price' of $40. This software has been under development for about a decade and was marketed, until recently, as Grammarian by Casady & Greene. However this software, fully redesigned for OS X, is much more than that.

The grammar checking function allows one to specify a style of language usage desired and applies rules to enhance a variety such as Academic, Business, Casual, Chat, Common, Formal, Legal, and Technical. I found it to be a valuable assistant in formulating cogently written thoughts. It works best when used as another, quite literal, proof reader whose judgements must still be vetted by the author. While I may only use a third of the suggestions, those do make my final written piece more expressive and communicative.

The universal spell checker itself was worth the purchase for me as I have been using Excalibur formerly, but the extra steps of copy/pasting manually made it a little clunky compared to the Grammarian checker. Auto Type is valuable for those who think and type at such a speed that they like shortcuts and Auto Correct is handy when typing speed causes typical keyboard spelling errors. Both seem to work faultlessly.

The one major feature of the software which I find useless is the "Interactive Checking." It takes sufficiently long to launch and respond to flagged errors that you might have written another line or two before the window launches, particularly with grammar issues. It interrupts the flow of thought and is a hindrance instead of a help. The simple solution is to wait for a natural pause in writing or the end of a short piece and use the "Check Selection" or "Check All..." feature.

A missing feature which I would like to see added in future updates would be a comprehensive thesaurus. I learned that there will be many enhancements in future updates during an e-mail contact with the developer who did not specify what they would be. However, as it stands, this is a remarkable piece of software, extremely well thought out and implemented.

As there is a demo available, I strongly endorse a trial of Grammarian Pro X to anyone who cares for meticulously crafted writing.