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Antidote for English speakers Antidote is a complete set of software reference tools for writing French. Tools include an advanced grammar checker which corrects the whole text at once, an important collection of ten dictionaries, and an interactive compendium of grammar rules. Seamlessly integrated with major word processors and email programs, Antidote's tools are available instantaneously right from your text.

Can Antidote teach me French?

If you can already read French reasonably well, you can use dictionaries and guides to improve your skills. The grammar guides are particularly well written and organized: clear, concise and complete. If you can also write recognizable French, the grammar checker will help you correct and understand your mistakes. But beware, Antidote is not a language teaching program per se. It was designed first and foremost as a professional tool for native French speakers.

How fluent do I have to be for Antidote to be useful to me?

English speakers make typical mistakes when writing French. The most common ones are gender related (le/la crayon? le/la plume? un/une antidote?). Antidote corrects those in a flash. It will also correct numerous other mistakes (more than 1000 types in all!). However, in its current version, Antidote's grammar checker has not been tuned for beginners. We recommend an intermediate level of written French for good results. Again, such a restriction does not apply to the dictionaries and guides.

Are the interface and documentation bilingual?

No. The content is so vast and so deeply French that it made little sense translating any of it. Think of it as those annoying language teachers who will speak only French to their pupils.

Will Antidote work with an English version of Windows/Mac OS/ Word/Outlook?

Yes. And other languages as well.

Will Druide be able to answer my questions in English?

While it may not be sound from a teaching perspective (after all, you must practice), we will gladly do so by email, fax or phone. We trust you won't mind our "'uge" accent!

For reference:

Dr. Jack Burston of Monash University, editor of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) Journal, has written a very good review discussing the benefits of Antidote for French learners. You can read his paper on CALICO's Website.

La Guinguette, a Web site for learners of French, has posted a quick review of Antidote, concluding, among other niceties, that "... for writing in French, Antidote stands out from the field. It's a more intelligent approach to language correction. This is a highly useful tool whose simplicity makes it a pleasure to use. The interactive approach ensures that you learn from your mistakes. The only real danger is getting hooked on the Antidote...".

Brown University recommends Antidote to its learners of French, rather enthusiastically so, we think. "Antidote is the best and the latest in software designed specifically to help students with their writing assignments by including a very complete spell checker, an on-board French dictionary, a sophisticated thesaurus as well as grammar and syntax guidelines. It goes well beyond the capacities of Microsoft French spell-check and we strongly suggest that you do not use any other tool when submitting a paper for a French class at Brown."

Minimal specifications on Windows Pentium II (Pentium III recommended) 128 MB Memory (256 MB recommended) 150 MB free on disk Windows Vista or Windows XP/2000/2003/2008 On Windows, Antidote integrates with Word 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 Outlook 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 Outlook Express 5, 6 Windows Mail 6 PowerPoint 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 Excel 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 InDesign CS2, CS3 InCopy CS3 Illustrator CS, CS2, CS3 WordPerfect 12, X3, X4 Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7 Hotmail (Internet Explorer) Yahoo Mail (Internet Explorer) Gmail (Internet Explorer) StarOffice 5.2, 6, 7, 8 Web Creator 4 GroupWise 6.5 Lotus Notes R5, R6 OpenOffice.org 2 Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw Eudora 5, 6, 7 Firefox 1.5, 2 Thunderbird 1.5, 2 IncrediMail Xe 4 et 5 WordPad Notepad/Bloc-notes RTF files TEXT files Visuel 3 Minimal specifications on Mac OS X PowerPC or Mac Intel processor (universal binary) 128 MB Memory (256 MB without virtual memory) 140 MB free on disk Mac OS X version 10.3.9 (Panther), 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard) On OS X, Antidote integrates with Word X, 2004, 2008 Entourage X, 2004 PowerPoint X, 2004 Excel 2004 Pages 1, 2, 3 Keynote 2, 3, 4 Numbers QuarkXPress 6, 7 Eudora 5, 6 InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 InCopy CS3 Illustrator CS, CS2, CS3 AppleWorks 6 OpenOffice.org 2 (X11) Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw NeoOffice 2 Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw PowerMail 4, 5 BBEdit 7, 8 Nisus Writer Express 2 Nisus Writer Pro Mail 1, 2 ,3 Thunderbird 2 Safari 1, 2, 3 Firefox 2 Mailsmith 1, 2 TextEdit TextWrangler 1, 2 Tex-Edit Plus 4 OS X Services OS X Dock (menu) RTF files TEXT files Visuel 3 Minimal specifications on Linux Pentium II (Pentium III recommended) 128 MB Memory (256 MB recommended) 150 MB free on disk 32 bits; Fedora 4 to 9, SuSE (SLED 10), Mandriva 2008.01 or Ubuntu 6.06 to 8.04 On Linux, Antidote integrates with OpenOffice.org 2 Writer OpenOffice.org 2 Calc OpenOffice.org 2 Impress OpenOffice.org 2 Draw Thunderbird 1.5, 2 Firefox 1.5, 2 RTF files TEXT files All updates of Antidote's RX edition are available free of charge : Win updates Mac OS updates Linux updates