Spell Check This

Okay, I've had it up to here with spell checkers. Why is it that people seem to put so much thought into certain sections of their word lists and not others?

For instance, Blogger knows how to spell "Pfizer." But although it can spell "televangelist," it cannot deal with the simple concept that one might possess something. Therefore, "televangelist's" is out. I know, that's not a plural, and probably a lot of people use it that way, but while they are wrong, how hard is it really to teach your stupid spell checker to add apostrophes. Blogger can't even cope with the idea that "anyone" might be a possessive.

Then, of course, there's Microsoft, who can spell all of their products but fall over backwards if you ask them to spell products produced by a different company. There's the fact that they seem to glean words from the Internet without regard to said words' actual meaning. So one gets numerous acronyms passed along cheerfully as words (this isn't just Microsoft's problem).

How hard is it really? I'm not asking for a dictionary; the spell checker doesn't have to know what the word means, just how to spell it. If you can spend all your time making sure that the latest techno-jargon is in your word list, you can make sure that all the other words in the English language are as well. Guess what: you can even crib from dictionaries. It may come as a shock to some, but one cannot copyright individual words. So search through an actual book for words not in the list. I know, it's tough, what with everyone expecting every piece of information to appear in a digital form these days, but you never know.

I'm not a particularly hot speller, but at least I can recognize when things are words that should be spelled correctly. I don't expect dictionaries to include words like, "pastramification," for instance. I might use those words, but I won't be upset if the spell checker doesn't recognize them.

Come on spell checkers, clean up your act. If there can be an ANSII standard for programming languages and complicated specifications, why can't they step in and produce an ANSII word list for spell checkers. Blogger can't even spell ANSII.