Filed under: Internet, Text, Blogging, Office, Productivity, Web services, Freeware, Browsers, Web
After the Deadline polishes your writing online
While some modern browsers include built-in spell checkers, and some operating systems include built-in spelling and grammar checkers, there are people out there using operating systems and browsers that do not have these features.
If you're looking for some help with your writing and don't have access to Microsoft Word or a similarly-powered word processor, there is a solution available on the web called After the Deadline. The site (at the memorable URL polishmywriting.com) offers spelling and grammar help, and even writing style suggestions.
While you can simply use the demo service right on the front page of After the Deadline, the site offers a WordPress plugin, as well as a few other plugins for products such as TinyMCE (a rich text editor used by many websites), RoundCube Webmail, and PHP List. The WordPress plugin integrates right into your post editing page and activates at the click of a toolbar button. The sites says it is only compatible with WordPress 2.7, but in my testing on WordPress 2.8 it worked fine.
As with most services that are offered online, the downside to After the Deadline is that you have to pass your text to their server to process it to give you back suggestions. As long as you trust After the Deadline, this isn't a problem, and while there's no reason not to trust them, I probably also wouldn't paste a sensitive work-related document into some 3rd party website.
After the Deadline is free to use on a trial basis, and in their FAQ they say that there is currently no hard limit for the number of requests you can make with a given API key, but if you find you are regularly using it they request that you purchase a service plan.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sarah said 2:39PM on 6-17-2009
I wish someone would provide similar service that would use live native English-speakers to correct writing. Something like lite editing that would catch things that software doesn't. Of course this would probably not be a free service, but if the price was reasonable I am sure there would be many potential customers.
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