Four years after posting it on April 4, 2002, to my chagrin I found the following post in this thread, signed by me:

Spell checkers have their place, but I would DREAM of allowing a spell checker to make changes on its own! Or using one that couldn't be kept from doing so.

I assure you that there emphatically should be the word "not" after "would" and before "DREAM", so that it would read:

Spell checkers have their place, but I would not DREAM of allowing a spell checker to make changes on its own! Or using one that couldn't be kept from doing so.

In the course of creating computerized documents since 1982, I have never had a spell checker that insisted on making changes without my instruction to do so, nor one that wouldn't allow me to add an unrecognized word (or name) to the checker's dictionary.

Of course, with proper nouns one must be careful what gets added to the dictionary. I remember particularly the name of a lawyer, Jahn (not John) Schmith (not Smith, not Smyth, not Smythe, not Schmidt, not Schmitt).   

Dave Oesterreich