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Copernic
Summarizer v2.0
Reviewed
by: Stuart
Craine,
send e-mail
Published
by: Copernic
Technologies Inc., go
to the web site
Requires:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP; Netscape 3 (or a later version),
Internet Explorer 3 (or a later version) or a compatible browser;
486DX 66 MHz or higher; 15MB RAM; 10 MB of free disk space
MSRP:
$59.95
In
our technological age, with it’s ever growing advances
in quick mass communication, information overload has become
a large problem - a bane to all computer users, from the student
seeking information for an essay, to the professional analyzing
or cataloguing information. Part of the problem is the excess
of words used to weave all the relevant facts together. This
becomes a real annoyance when relevant facts are sparingly
spread throughout a rambling document. Copernic Summarizer
goes very far in solving these problems by creating a condensed
version of the original text.
Copernic
Summarizer extracts key concepts and relevant sentences, creating
a summary of concise paragraphs. It also displays a list of
pertinent words. The program allows you to create summaries
of different lengths and add or delete from the list pertinent
words. I found that a summary length of 50% was best, as any
shorter summary, especially in large documents, can result
in missed relevant information and facts.
Copernic
Summarizer can analyze a text of any length in English, French,
German and Spanish. It summarizes Word documents; Web pages
viewed with Internet Explorer, PDF files, Outlook Express
e-mail and text from the Windows Clipboard. It is possible
to summarize various file formats (.doc, .txt, .rtf, .pdf,
.htm, .html and .url) without opening them. Also, the feature
Summarize a Web page allows the possibility of summarizing
a Web Page from a URL address without opening it first.
The
installation of Summarizer places a button on the toolbar
in compatible Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer
and Word. Choosing the appropriate menu item results in a
summary consisting of a list of pertinent words and sentences
extracted from the document, file or page.
I
am very impressed with this program. As a freelance journalist,
I have a glut of newsletters, documents, reports and news
items to digest daily, in addition to my own research. In
most cases I found the Summarizer did a very adequate job
of extracting the pertinent information. The few cases of
poor summaries were easily rectified. In cases of over-editing,
I corrected the situation by adding to the list of pertinent
words to re-summarize the article. In cases of under-editing,
I corrected the situation by either removing irrelevant words
from the list and re-summarizing, or simply deleting irrelevant
paragraphs from the summary. The summary can be printed or
saved as an HTML, XML, Rich Text (RTF) or Text file. The summary
can also be e-mailed directly from the program.
The
Copernic Live Summarizer is another very useful feature. It
appears as a pane on the toolbar. When activated as you browse
the Internet, it displays a real time summary of the Web page
that is open. I found that the feature generally managed to
get the substance of the Web pages after I got past the home
page.
Whether
or not this program will save time, especially if too much
effort is required to fine-tune the settings, depends on individual
users and their reading skills. However, I believe Copernic
Summarizer has two big positive factors. First, there is no
doubt that it is an energy saving device for most individuals
involved with any amount of summarizing and indexing of documents
or information. The ability to save summaries in various formats
and print or e-mail directly from the program is very useful.
Second, it helps eliminate the problem of waning focus and
concentration - missing important, relevant information as
a result - something which happens all too often when reading
large documents.
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to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public.
Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
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