Auto-correct "The Big Miss"

I have been swearing at my iPhone for weeks because I keep forgetting to see what ridiculous auto-corrections it is performing when I am texting or composing emails. For some reason I just cannot remember to look and review before I push send. Actually that is not entirely true,I know the reason ..it is because it is so awkward and frustrating to make a correction on the little screen I had rather just not know it was there and just assume it is perfectly composed and send it.

Today, I got to thinking about why such a useful feature is actually a curse and I realized the answer after I spent hours looking over 200 PowerPoint Slides in 3 decks I was creating where each time the program "assisted me" by changing "EHR" to "her".

There needs to be some simple logic driven way to find the function in these programs to let the software know I have not mispelled the damned word 600 times. I actually want to use that word. It is not like spell check where you are offered polite choices by a nice software driven assist. You can add the word to the dictionary, say "no thank you, leave it alone just this once" or say "thank you I am glad you caught that mistake Mr. Microsoft."

Auto-correct is spell check's evil twin. Auto-correct is like a condescending acquaintance who just presumes they know the best way. Yes, that's it .... I think auto-correct is like one of those self-righteous smugs who always think they know the best way to do everything no matter what and never look for input because they think they are just too damned perfect. Note to self: Let's do some market research and see how many senior executives have the middle name "auto-check". I suspect the study "N" will be quite significant (and that is not a term we use lightly in medical writing),

Like annoying people auto-check can be right on occasion but more times than not it is wrong and when it is wrong, it can be painful to all concerned. Like the time at Nabi when the IT Department made one of those system changes that wiped out all of our personal additions to our online dictionary. Care to guess what the autocorrect answer is to the unrecognized word "Nabi". It is "Nazi".

Just imagine my horror when I looked down and saw I was half-way through signing a stack of letters as the "Senior Director of Sales and Marketing for Nazi Biopharmaceuticals." Those letters went straight to shredder (thank God) instead of the mailroom. I had never been able to truly consider auto-correct a trusted tool and that experience sealed its fate for me. I declared it not just useless but evil. At this point I would disable it completely but I am guessing the feature for doing that is located somewhere in another dimension along with the "edit" autocorrect function. It just thinks itself too perfect for any manipulation on my part.

What a useless tool.

Then today I saw someone had an evenmore horrifying auto-correct incident that they posted online. Oh yes, auto-correct is not just annoying, it is down right evil.

I am so relieved to know it isnt just me.