WILMINGTON, Delaware, November 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Today WhiteSmoke announces the official General Availability of WhiteSmoke 2008, the latest version of their award-winning writing and grammar software, available at http://www.whitesmoke.com?d=1&a=24&r=1285.

WhiteSmoke 2008 amends grammar, spelling and punctuation, and enriches the user's text by suggesting alternative and/or additional wording - and all this at a fraction of a second and in any application that uses a text box. Text modifications are based on user input and real English usage, researched and implemented by a team of natural language processing (NLP) experts.

The new version results from focused research and development efforts and introduces significant user experience enhancements to this revolutionary online writing tool.

A New User-Friendly GUI

Central to WhiteSmoke 2008 is a redesigned graphical user interface (GUI). WhiteSmoke founder and CEO Hilla Ovil-Brenner explains, "The WhiteSmoke 2008 GUI now offers easy to navigate drop-down menus for its grammar and enrichment suggestions." Users are able to highlight text and apply WhiteSmoke within the application they are using and can now also type extra text, at any length, directly into the WhiteSmoke window for editing. She further adds that "in our constant attempts to ease the user experience, we decided to decrease the graphic load on the eye, and lower the number of buttons and menus. The new version unites the activation of some less used functions, allowing the viewer clutter-free usability."

The Notifier

The WhiteSmoke 2008 version also features the Notifier, which alerts the user to grammar and spelling mistakes as they type in any desktop application. "What this offers the user," explains Liran Brenner, WhiteSmoke VP R&D, "is an on-the-spot pop-up window that alerts the writer about a mistake and suggests a correction. The user can either correct the error manually in the application or launch WhiteSmoke 2008 for automatic correction."

The Notifier further improves workflow and gives the ongoing writing process a more natural style for error detection and correction. This allows the user to pick-up on mistakes, which might adversely affect further chunks of text. "This added value, therefore, actually saves valuable writing time," adds Brenner.

Updates to the WhiteSmoke British Edition

"Since 70% of our sales are in North America, we were overwhelmed when numerous potential customers from Britain and Commonwealth countries approached us to release a British English edition," continues CEO Hilla Ovil-Brenner.

"We took up the challenge and after months of development have come up with not only advanced technology which provides British spelling variations (e.g. U.K. 'centre' Vs. U.S. 'center'), but also with optional lexical items which vary across these two English language varieties (U.K. 'lift' Vs. U.S. 'elevator')."

VP Marketing Amit Greener adds, "WhiteSmoke has succeeded in establishing a stronghold in the American market and we are now striving to cater to the needs of British English speaking communities. This puts WhiteSmoke products on the verge of becoming a globally used work tool, synonymous with its main goal of being the top English text correction and enhancement medium." This ambition goes hand in hand with the company's recent campaigns in new prospective markets including Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands and Israel.

Updated Grammar Engine and Enrichment Database

WhiteSmoke is based on advanced grammar algorithms and an artificial intelligence engine which constantly scans high-quality Internet sites for its text enrichment database. Each day more enrichment suggestions (more synonyms, adjectives and adverbs) are added. For WhiteSmoke 2008, the company's technical team has made further enhancements to its artificial intelligence algorithms, enabling more accurate detection and correction of grammar errors, and a greatly expanded enrichment database.

CEO Ovil-Brenner, whose keen entrepreneurial senses originally brought WhiteSmoke English writing software to life, concludes: "More and more people are interacting on the Internet and writing English for business, academic and personal communications. Blog and forum communities flourish, and there generally seems to be no end to the extent at which desktop writing is growing. The consequence of all this is that WhiteSmoke will venture further afield in its attempt to provide the best solution available to any English writing purposes."

Who uses WhiteSmoke?

WhiteSmoke appeals to a broad range of users. Among them are salespeople, customer service employees, administrators and managers who only a few years ago relied almost totally on phone calls. They must now write to answer customer questions, solve problems, motivate subordinates, report to their managers and get new business. These users -- and their employers -- see typos, poor grammar, wordiness, clumsy sentences and other mistakes as career breakers and want solutions that work harder and better than ordinary spellcheckers.

WhiteSmoke also boosts the confidence of non-native English speaking employees by helping them find just the right word quickly and efficiently.

WhiteSmoke is also popular with college and graduate school students who use it to enhance essays and theses as well as individuals who want help with grammar, spelling, and choosing just the right word for any situation.

WhiteSmoke 2008 is available immediately from http://www.whitesmoke.com/products.html?d=1&a=24&r=1285

About WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke is a world leader in English grammar and writing technologies. It was ranked 5th among Business 2.0's "31 Best Business Ideas in the World" in 2006, and continues to expand with new worldwide server locations and focused R&D efforts. More information about WhiteSmoke products and pricing are available from the WhiteSmoke website at: http://www.whitesmoke.com/?d=1&a=24&r=1285

Media Contact: David Brown, +972-548-138-873, david_brown@whitesmoke.com; Or Ranbir Sahota, Vitis PR, +44(0)844-8841910, ranbir@vitispr.com.

Media Contact: David Brown, +972-548-138-873, david_brown@whitesmoke.com; Or Ranbir Sahota, Vitis PR, +44(0)844-8841910, ranbir@vitispr.com.