Microsoft Word has “Awakened” spell-checking settings and that’s fine

Microsoft Office now has a wake-up editor that will mark your writing if it contains insensitive phrases. Welcome to stupid cultural wars, office settings.

The software package has been given a feature that will call your writing not to include or contain offensive language. In the same way, spell checking looks for spelling and grammar errors, this inclusion editor, available to Microsoft 365 subscribers scans your work for inappropriate terms.

The new feature goes beyond labeling ethnic insults and will stand out when you use words or phrases that include bias about age, cultural bias, sexual orientation bias, sexual bias, racial bias, and gender-specific language.

Some examples include changing the “black list” and “white list” to “accepted” or “allowed list” or replacing a gender-specific “postman” with a “postal worker”. Similarly, “humanity” or “humanity” is recommended in relation to “humanity,”And“ expert ”is suggested when the software designates“ master ”, a term associated with slavery. (ANDn 2020. owned by Microsoft Github removed “master” and “slave” from your website.)

We checked that the feature is already available to Microsoft 365 users, but is off by default. And quite confusingly, Microsoft gives you the ability to turn off some features of inclusion while omitting others, so you can check gender bias but ignore any ethnic insults. When enabled, inappropriate expressions are underlined in purple and an inclusive alternative is shown.

Microsoft said Daily mail that spell checking may not be “appropriate for all scenarios” and stressed that it can be turned off if necessary. While there certainly are scenarios in which people do not want to be encouraged towards political correctness (say, if you’ve referenced a quote like “One Little Step for Humanity”), you can too just ignore the purple underline.

“Microsoft understands that not every editorial proposal is appropriate for all users and all scenarios,” the company told the Daily Mail. “That’s why we allow users to have control over their end result. Editor is a completely optional tool that users can turn on or off at any time. The editor does not make any auto-corrections. The user has control over the suggestions they will use, if any. They will be able to turn each of them on and off individually. ”

It seems like Microsoft is on its toes, fearing potentially angering people who think about “vigilance” be poisonous, or anything else. If Microsoft wants people to know how “awakened” it is, the company should stick to its beliefs and make it a default feature that can be turned off when needed, instead of quietly releasing a tool (we asked Microsoft when it first became available) and hiding it deep in the settings.

For now, to enable the feature, you need to go to the “Editor” tab on the top bar and select “Settings” near the button. From there, select “Check” and “Settings …” and then “Grammar and Refine” from the drop-down menu. Here you can choose which inclusion categories you want the editor to include.

A new spell checker is introduced in the latest version of Microsoft Word in Microsoft 365, the company’s productive cloud subscription service. Unfortunately, those using the free browser-based version or standalone Office 2019 with a single payment will not be able to access the editor, according to the Daily Mail.

We have contacted Microsoft for more details on the Inclusion Editor and will update this article if we receive a response.