A word processor is a way for people who know what they want to say and how
to say it to put those words on paper. Some of the functions you mention
(such as automatic creation of TOCs) are fundamental to this purpose. Auto
formatting certainly facilitates it. Keep in mind that a huge target market
for Microsoft is "knowledge workers" (secretaries and the like) and
executives in large corporations. They need to be able to create letters and
reports and easily and quickly as possible. It is assumed that they either
know how to spell or will depend on spell check to correct their spelling.
I'll grant you that this is an unreasonable assumption in the first instance
and a dangerous one in the second, but there you have it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"rndthought" wrote in message
...
Suzanne,

You make a good observation in regards to trying to be all things. As for
keeping MS Word from loosing sight of the "primary functions" (or
focus)... I
believe even a cursory overview of the options and abilities in Word
show's
the ship has set sail (Invoicing with macros, auto creation of TOC, auto
formatting, Auto fill forms, creating HTML documents, altering Image
attributes - all on a word processor???). It seems to me that MS Word
most
definitely has higher aspirations than that of a functioned word processor
or
computerize type writer.

If a spelling tutor, I like that term Suzanne, doesn't belong in a program
whose primary purpose is to type words in the creation of documents,
presumably for purpose of communicating information accurately...where
then?

This isn't a fundamental change in the program or a complete change in the
interface (which is coming in the next version)...simply an option (or if
possible a macro as Greg has shown in a limited fashion) that could be
enabled for those that wish to expand their spelling abilities. Why so
much
resistance and need to voice it?

Thank you again for the thoughtful comments.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Where Word most often gets into trouble is through trying to be all
things
to all people. I don't imagine, however, that the Word developers will
ever
so far lose sight of the primary functions of Word as to incorporate
features that make it a spelling tutor.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.