The new Dewan Eja Pro 2010

The Name Technology has done a good job by upgrading Dewan Eja Pro, a Malay spelling checker cum dictionary to the 2010 version. In the new version, Kamus Peribahasa is incorporated in the software making it easier for those who like to upgrade, not having to upgrade both software.

The feature I like about the Dewan Eja Pro 2010 is the display box to display any word we like find. It will be explained in Malay using Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat, in English using Kamus Bahasa Melayu - Bahasa Inggeis, and in Chinese using the Kamus Bahasa Melayu - Bahasa Cina. The most interesting part is each Malay word will have its jawi equivalent in bracket. I have forgotten my Jawi. With this software, I can be use of the right Jawi transcription then.

Another useful thing about this software is its ability to identify 40 grammatical errors but I have tried out the features as claimed but found that not all can be identified as there might be some programming bugs yet to be fixed. These are the grammatical that this software can identify.

1 Beberapa pelajar melayari Internet di Pusat Sumber Sekolah. [Beberapa pelajar will be underlined in green. When you click grammar to see the explain, it will tell you that beberapa should be followed by a penjodoh bilangan because pelajar is a concrete noun. The sentence should have been : Beberapa orang pelajar melayari Internet di Pusat Sumber Sekolah.]

2 If you type ianya, it will be changed to 'ia' immediately.

3 If you type 'Buku ini dibaca oleh saya, 'oleh saya' will be underlined in green and the explanation given is 'kata ganti nama diri pertama dan kedua tidak boleh hadir selepas kata kerja pasif yang disertai di walaupun wujudnya 'oleh' [The first and second personal pronoun cannot be placed after the passive verb formed by adding 'di' in front of it)]

4 If you tpe mereka-mereka, the suggestion given is 'mereka' and you can click 'chane' to replace the hyphenated word to 'mereka'.

All in all, it is a Malay spelling checker worth buying although it may be a bit expensive as it is priced at RM238. I upgraded mine for RM69. I first bought Dewan Eja for RM199, then upgraded it to Dewan Eja Pro for RM99 and now I had to part with RM69. If you like the software, you can use it free of charge by downloading it from 'The Name Technology' website at http://www.tntsb.com/ for a period of 60 days.

From my experience, if you use it every day, you will buy it after the 60th day because it is so useful that you will not want to leave it.

So much for bragging about Dewan Eja Pro.