Corpora Summarize! 2.0 review

Gallery

Verdict:

Review Date: 23 Jan 2006

Price when reviewed: (around £29 inc VAT)

Reviewed By: David Ludlow

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

Review
Specs

When we first reviewed Summarize! it was an expensive product aimed at businesses. Version 2 is much more affordable but uses the same summarisation engine to reduce large documents to manageable summaries.

Summarize! works well and is quick, too. You specify a set number of words or a percentage of the document for the summary. The software 'reads' the document, understands the grammar and produces a summary that's well-worded and easy to understand. You'll probably have to play with the settings for each document to work out what's best.

There will be times when the bits of a document it highlights as important aren't. This is where profiles come in. You can create profiles that contain your own set of keywords. For example, if you're studying the Battle of Britain, 'Spitfire' might be one of the chosen words. This skewing has a noticeable effect and, if done carefully, greatly improves the results.

The application also lists a document's keywords. Selecting one highlights it throughout the summary. There's a link to the full document, but this opens Internet Explorer rather than the document's default application. It's also a shame that clicking on a summary paragraph doesn't link to the relevant section in the document. This would be a good way of getting full information.

The software integrates with Office, internet and email, and will summarise attachments, too. But the most impressive new feature is the Windows Explorer interface. Turn on the summary bar and Windows shows a summary of a selected document.

The new user-friendly interface and tools make this an excellent choice for anyone who works with large documents. Students in particular will love it.

Prev Next

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

< Previous Reviews : Business software Next >

Sponsored Links

Be the first to comment on this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.