AutoCorrect Annoyance

RANT

Am I the only person in the world who absolutely abhor AutoCorrect? I was just typing Stock Data into a spreadsheet when I kept getting interrupted by smiley face in the corner. The program "helpfully" "corrected" my "mistakes" and changed my typings as it thinks it should be. Unfortunately, when it comes to symbols, the program kept mistaking my entries as faulty, even though they are correct. Worse, I can't fix it!

Looking at the help menu, I see that to disable AutoCorrect, just turn it off, except that feature on the menu is ghosted. Furthermore, it appears that there are several components that comprise this Autocorrect feature. One deals with auto completion. Another deals with spelling. As I don't mistype words all that much, I find it very annoying to have to deal with this.

No problem, the designers may say. Just quickly type Ctrl-Z to undo the change. Well, it doesn't work when I use the return key to go to the next cell. So, the only way I can enter the right symbol is to painfully go back, type the symbol again with a space, then hit Ctrl-Z. What a pain!

This is why I prefer a simple text editor to do my data entry. Sophisticated word processor is not sophisticated enough. I have spent all these years perfecting my skill, and the least the program designers could do is provide a way to turn these word processing monster into a simple text editor, you know? Unbidden feature is never welcome.

Speaking of which, I hold low regard to those so called computer programmers who cannot function without syntax coloring feature. What if somebody ask for advice over email? Are you then helpless because you cannot parse the code without different colors? Reading text, whether it is code or just plain English means that you understand the underlying grammar already. All those speed readers don't need syntax colorings on their materials, and neither do I. Increase your skill, and don't depend on program crutches.

So, I guess I'm in the mood for a new simpler spreadsheet. I think Google make one.

I'll check it out.