Grammar Slammer Deluxe with Checkers
Bottom line: Much better as an electronic guide than as a grammar checker.
Review: It seems unfair to compare Grammar Slammer with the other grammar checkers we've reviewed. Grammar Slammer's makers originally intended their software to comprise only a Help File that you can quickly and easily consult to find answers to your grammar questions. The makers didn't originally intend Grammar Slammer to include a checker that scans your document for potential grammatical mistakes. The software's makers explain in a file that comes with Grammar Slammer:
- "Frankly, when we originally wrote Grammar Slammer and then Grammar Slammer Deluxe, we wrote them to assist users who needed a grammar or spelling reference or who wanted an easy tool to use when grammar or spelling checkers gave them a choice they were not sure about. However, over the years we have been asked about providing checkers. Now we have done this."
Grammar Slammer's Help File is Grammar Slammer's strength. The Help File is an electronic guide that provides clear and useful advice on grammar. The Help File is structured like any Windows Help File. You can browse a Table of Contents, browse the index, and search the content. It is a useful learning aid.
As for the grammar checker, the software's makers acknowledge the limitations of the checker frankly and honestly:
- "Our checkers, especially the grammar checker, are relatively simple. We do not have a full-time team that continually adds to its pattern files or creates new dictionaries ... Still, the grammar checker is a basic tool to help you. Its most appealing feature is that it also has a button that will take you to appropriate page or index page for many of grammar errors which it detects—even this feature is not as thorough as the same feature is for the spelling checker, but we have tried."
When we tried Grammar Slammer's grammar checker on our test documents, we encountered several problems.
Even taking account of the limitations of grammar checking software, Grammar Slammer returned some odd results. For example, when we wrote "an American", Grammar Slammer suggested "a American" rather than "an American", telling us to "Use 'a' before words that start with consonants". "American" starts with a vowel, so why did Grammar Slammer flag the potential error? How much effort would it take for Grammar Slammer's programmers to code the software to flag the potential error only when "a" appears before a consonant?
Grammar Slammer often repeated its earlier suggested alternatives even when the software was processing a completely different error. For example, the software suggested 5 (bizarre) alternatives to "Todd will carry": "Todd will carries"; "Todd wills carry"; "The wills carry"; "These wills carry"; and "Those wills carry". We ignored the suggestions and continued to the second potential error, where we had placed punctuation inside quotation marks (which is contrary to American practice). Curiously, when Grammar Slammer alerted us to the potential punctuation error, it displayed 2 of the errors it had shown before when it processed "Todd will carry": "These wills carry" and "Those wills carry".
Compared to other grammar checking software we've reviewed, Grammar Slammer's grammar checker returned more false positives, made fewer useful suggestions, and missed too many real errors.
As well as problems with the software's editorial suggestions, we encountered several technical glitches. For example, when we switched between Grammar Slammer and other applications, we lost the text we had pasted into Grammar Slammer; then, the software crashed, returning an "Access violation" error.
To process a Word document in Grammar Slammer, you must copy your text from Word into Grammar Slammer. To use Grammar Slammer's edited version of your text, you must paste the edited text back into your document. On the positive side, Grammar Slammer did retain most of the text's original formatting (bold, italics, etc) that some other grammar checking software removes.
Overall, had Grammar Slammer Deluxe with Checkers come only as a grammar checker, we couldn't recommend the software. However, through its Help File, Grammar Slammer provides a clear guide on grammar that is quick and easy to use. With versions ranging from $25 (Help File only, no checkers) to $49 (with checkers), Grammar Slammer is better value than many hard copy grammar guides.
How to trial:
You can download a fully functional free evaluation version of Grammar Slammer Deluxe with Checkers for Windows 95 or higher as a .zip file or in EXE installation file format. You may use the evaluation version up to 21 times. If you like the software, and wish to continue its use after the evaluation period, then you must pay for the software.