Writers’ Toolkit for Microsoft Word…the FREE app for your English class

11trees is proud to announce The Writers’ Toolkit for Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010.

The 11trees Writers’ Toolkit is both a free website of resources and a powerful Microsoft Word add-in that unifies important tools for writers including:

• The web’s best resources on grammar, style, organization, argument, research, and citation formatting
• Tools like a thesaurus, citation management, citation formatting, word count, spell check, and basic grammar check
• Embedded Google Scholar search and candid advice on how to write compelling academic essays (and get better grades)

These resources appear inside Microsoft Word, so a writer can access them as they create.

>> Download and Install the Writers’ Toolkit

Annotate for Word 2007 PRO v2.0 is HERE…

We’ve sold hundreds and hundreds of Annotate PRO licenses over the last year, and the free version has been downloaded over 10,000 times. We’re proud of what we accomplished, but we always knew that easy customization was critical to a broader adoption, potentially across different ‘industries.’

The ability to change the buttons, and the content behind them, has been our number one feature request. Sure, all versions of Annotate make it much easier to leverage Microsoft Word’s built in automation (called AutoText in versions up through Word 2003, and QuickParts in Word 2007). But like many aspects to Word, these features are clunky.

For Word 2007 only we’ve gone ahead and done it: a user can customize every Group label, 90% of the buttons, add new buttons, and change the underlying content that appears with a single click.

Watch a 5 Minute Demo of Annotate for Word 2007 PRO v2.0

If you want to change the URL linked to a particular comments? Easy. Click, click, click – and for ever after the new URL appears. If you want to change the description for a particular issues, and/or the button label itself? No worries…a few clicks, and the content is updated. There are 70 built-in comments, and another 150 blank comments that can be tailored to specific uses. The information is stored locally, in a database, and can even be backed up or switched out, so that a user could keep multiple databases of comments (for different courses, say).

We’ve also confirmed that Annotate for Word 2007 works with Windows 7, and we’ve even got users running Annotate with Office 2010 Beta.

Since Annotate for Word 2007 brings such advanced features to editing and managing documents, we’ve dropped the price of our Word 2000/XP/2003 and Mac Office 2004 versions to $25. These versions make it easy to leverage a bank of custom comments, but they don’t allow full customization of the Annotate button library.

We’re looking forward to refining v2.0 and adding sister versions of the software designed for office applications. Stay tuned!

> Video Demo

> Learn More

> Customer Reviews

Annotate for MAC Users

Thanks to some very excited English teachers and a constant stream of emails from interested Mac users, we now have a version of Annotate for Word that runs on Mac Office 2004.

Yes, that was five years ago, but progress is progress.

With the latest release of Mac Office (2008), Microsoft dropped support for Visual Basic for Applications, which is what we wrote the older version of Annotate with (the Word 2007 version is written using .NET). But just as with Word 2007 on the Windows side of the world, many teachers haven’t bothered upgrading. So there are still a lot of Word 2004 computers out there, and we hope to help a lot of those computers help their owners create better feedback for their students.

The free version of Annotate for Word 2004 for Mac Office 2004 (we haven’t figured out a more elegant way to name the thing that is also specific enough) isn’t quite ready, but we’ve got a number of PRO users going already. So don’t hesitate to be in touch…

http://www.11trees.com/annotate-for-word.html

Annotate for Word 2003!!!

Feedback is central to a teacher/student relationship, and the more we experiment with existing feedback tools the more we feel that e-learning technology company’s have forsaken this crucial process for more glitzy tools – like streaming media drop boxes and VoIP solutions. But does a teacher need a wi-fi Skype phone in her classroom? Or a better way to give constructive feedback to her students?

As a small step towards remedying, I have been involved with a project called 11trees.com. 11trees.com’s first tool – available in free and PRO versions – is a customized add-in for Microsoft Word that makes it easy to add many of the typical comments teachers make to students on their writing (at least in high school and college) to a Microsoft Word document.

So many of us are collecting work electronically, or reviewing drafts that our students email to us, that it just makes sense to have a more legible, efficient tool to leverage Microsoft Word.

We released a version for Word 2007 (isn’t it almost 2009?) and many teachers and administrators have found us through Amazon.com, this blog, and kind mentions in a number of different publications and blogs. But we also heard from a large number of teachers begging us to build a version for the Mac or Word 2003.

Apple is whole other kettle of fish, unfortunately, although we are exploring a Mac Office 2008 version of Annotate. But Word 2003 was a no-brainer, since so many institutions and individuals have resisted – often for good reasons – upgrading.

Annotate for Word 2003 Toolbar

The Ribbon interface that is new to Word 2007 is the first major change to Word in many, many years. Most users find it daunting at first (where did my commands go?), but quickly get used to the new arrangement. Because features are grouped by their larger function, Word 2007 can be considerably easier to use than previous versions. The Annotate Ribbon integrates seamlessly with the Word 2007 user interface, and we recommend considering upgrading if you have the opportunity (many schools offer upgrades to teachers for free).

That said, Word 2003 works just fine, most people already have it. So we worked hard through the first couple of weeks of October to develop a Word 2003 version, which in some ways is superior to the Word 2007 version (hot-keys, for one reason).

So check out Annotate for Word 2003!

Annotate for Word 2003 Drop-down menu

Comment Inserted with ONE Click