When Spell Check Misses The Spirit: Writing Theology in Word

When Spell Check Misses The Spirit: Writing Theology in Word

I found out this week that Microsoft Word doesn't know its Bible.

I was finalising the proof copies of Kingdom Poetry Volume 1: Taking The World By Storm and Volume 2: New Beginnings — two books that have taken more than 10 years of early mornings here in Dewsbury to write.

On screen, everything looked perfect. No red lines. No blue lines. Word told me I was good to go.

Then I saw it. 

On paper.

"the spirit of council"

Spell checker said it was correct. And technically, it is. Council is a real word. It's a group of people in a room making decisions.

But I didn't write about a council. I wrote about the Spirit of Counsel. Isaiah 11:2. Wisdom, understanding, divine strategy. The Holy Spirit Himself advising us.

One letter. Completely different Spirit.

And Word missed it. Because Word Desktop checks spelling, not meaning.

The Desktop vs. Online Problem

This is what I couldn't figure out until yesterday. Why does Word on my desktop feel... dumber than Word in my browser?

On my laptop, the Editor gives me the basics: Spelling, Grammar.

Online, on Microsoft 365 for the web, the same document suddenly gets superpowers: Punctuation, Conciseness, Formality, Inclusive Language, Sensitive Geopolitical References.
Why?

Because the online version is plugged into the cloud. The Editor there is running AI — Microsoft Editor — which actually reads context. It knows that "council" after "Spirit of" in a theological book is probably wrong. It knows that "prophet" and "profit" are not interchangeable, even though both are spelt right. That "holy" and "wholly" will both pass a spell check but preach two different sermons.
The desktop version I paid for and installed? It keeps most of that offline. It will tell me if I spelt "accommodate" wrong. It won't tell me if I've just changed the Holy Spirit into a local authority meeting.

For a novelist, that's annoying. For a theological writer, it's dangerous.
Theological writing is all context. The difference between a prophet and a profit, 
breaking and breakthrough, grace and grease...is not a spelling issue. It's a meaning issue. 

And a desktop spell checker cannot discern spirits. 

Only a human can.

What I'm Learning To Do: Print it. I had to hold my proof copies — the actual hardbacks with the gold lettering — to see what the screen hid from me. Paper doesn't lie.

Read it aloud. When I read "spirit of council" out loud, my spirit checked it even if Word didn't.

Give it to pastors first. I ordered 2 copies of each volume for my pastors at church for a reason. Not just to bless them, but because they know the difference between counsel and council instantly. As an aside, I also emailed them the final Word documents to make any corrections as they see fit 

Use both Words. I'm now drafting in Desktop, but I run the final check in Word Online just for that Editor panel. It's clunky, but it catches the conciseness and punctuation things Desktop misses.

Microsoft, if you're reading — why does the free online version have more discernment than the desktop version I rely on?

Writing Kingdom Poetry has taught me this: Taking the world by storm starts with getting the words right. And sometimes new beginnings mean realising the tool you trusted can't tell the difference between a committee and the Comforter.

I'll be updating the interior files this week. If you ordered the first Kindle edition on September 17th, you'll get the corrected version automatically.

Grace and Counsel be yours in abundance!

The versions I have edited are online now. Hope I haven't missed anything.

David Nicholas Slater
Author, Kingdom Poetry

Here is my author page: click here! 

Kingdom Poetry Volume 1: Taking the world by storm: click here!

Kingdom Poetry Volume 2: New Beginnings: Click here!