A strange anomaly in the latest Word 2003 and Word 2007 — all to do with a possessive Donna.
” At some point “recently” (like within the past year?) the last name Donna, when you add a possessive, Office 2007 spell checker thinks it is spelled wrong. Try it with
Donna’s book.
How did Microsoft screw that up? ” – Robert A.
This is an interesting anomaly that’s crept into the dictionary update for both Word 2003 and Word 2007. Here’s a sample set of names as they appear in Word 2007 with Service Pack 1 (US English dictionary):
Since the problem appears with the name ‘Donna’ a die-hard West Wing fan can’t help thinking of Donna Moss (played by Janel Moloney) and the other sample names suggest themselves.
As you can see, the name Donna itself is OK in the dictionary as are all the other names and their possessive forms. But add the ” ‘s ” to the word Donna and up pops the red squiggly line.
Are there other names that show a similar behaviour?
The ” Donna’s ” anomaly appears in Word 2003 with Service Pack 3 and Word 2007 with Service Pack 1 (ie the most recent updates). Word 2003 SP2 and the original Word 2007 have no problem with a possessive Donna.
Not a big problem – more of a curiosity than anything else. What is it about the word “donna’s” that doesn’t match in the dictionary? Why Donna ?
See Also
- iPhone blocked spellings in Word
- Why is an eighth grader smarter than Microsoft Word?
- Spell-checker pulps cookbook
- Office 2003 support declining
- Is Office 2003 Service Pack 2 dead?
- The Cheese Shop and Microsoft Word
- Palin isn’t in the Word dictionary
- Word 2003: Obama or Osama
- Word in the 2004 US Election
- The changing Word 2003 Thesaurus
- Grammar in Word 2003
- Making AutoCorrect – correct for you
- Using AutoCorrect in Office – Part 2
- Using AutoCorrect in Office – Part 1
- Inside the Word 2003 Thesaurus
- Office 2007 dictionary updates
