Re: Spelling & Grammarchecker Use Survey

[joanne grey <j_grey -at- writeangles -dot- com>]

Brad Mehlenbacher wrote:

> *This survey is for Microsoft Word users*

Going back a few years, but here is one of my favorite silly stories.

> 1) Do you use either the spellchecker or the grammar checker on
> documents you produce in Word? If not, why not?

Yes, as a preliminary to catch the big errors.
> 
> 2) If you use the spellchecker, do you usually go back over a
> document that Word has spell-checked? Why or why not?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

> 6) Can you think of any experiences/instances in 
> using a spellchecker or grammarchecker that produced 
> interesting or surprising results
> (either positive or negative)? Please elaborate briefly:

Ah, here's my favorite spell-checker error. This one got past three
reviewers, proving that people see what they expect to see. It was on
its way to blue-line before it got caught.

In writing a User's Guide for a wonderful piece of (now obsolete)
software, I was defining all the customization options available. These
were accessed via a series of property sheets.  Unfortunately, that day
my brain was faster than my fingers, and I typed "property sheep"
instead.

Since "sheep" is a legitimate word, the spell checker sailed right past
it. So did the three reviewers.

Thank goodness the final reviewer caught it and was quite curious about
how you would open one of "them thar property sheeps".

It was after that that I began using spell checkers as just one tool and
not relying on them too much. I also took "form" and "from" out of the
dictionary, so that it can't find them and checks with me for those,
too. 

___________________________________________
Joanne Grey        j_grey -at- writeangles -dot- com
Write Angles       www.writeangles.com

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that
most frightens us.   - Nelson Mandela