Spell checkers, boon or bane?

[Prince Platypus]

I only like spellcheckers if I genuinely don't know how to spell the word. And if I don't know how to spell it, I certainly shouldn't be using it without looking it up in a dictionary first. You can totally tell when people use spellcheckers so that they can use giant words, without having a clue what they really mean. >.>;  

[Cherry Choo]

I am constantly irritated by the amount of times I type words in "English-English" and get corrected by "American-English" on spell-checkers. A prime example is the constant replacement of "S" by "Z". Seriously annoying. eek  

[Organic Shadows]

I chose the third option, because it's kind of annoying after a while, and it doesn't replace proof reading. Nothing does. However, if I don't know how to spell a word, I use it.  

[orianax]

I guess I'm one of the few that likes spell checkers...

Naturally, I have pretty good grammar but atrocious spelling - something that a spell checker helps me fix. I can honestly say that my spelling has gotten better since Firefox started coming with a built-in spell checker. ^^;;

Sarcasm: I do that too! I used to hang out in a chat room run by British siblings when I was younger and I picked up a lot of their spelling, and I got lots of ugly red squiggly lines after that. :/  

[Miradora]

I've never used the spell check feature in my life. I think it's one of those "too-old-to-learn" situations. I have always been an excellent speller, and I took typing as an elective in 9th grade 40 years ago. I considered myself really lucky and at the forefront of technology to arrive in college with my own electric typewriter and erasable typing paper. (This was in the pre-WhiteOut days.) Because I was always staying up all night to finish my work the night before it was due, the only way I got my papers done on time was to be VERY GOOD at typing my first draft VERY ACCURATELY. I still revise and edit as I write. I hope I don't post this with any mistakes, although I usually preview before I post.

The bottom line is that spell check doesn't do anything useful for me. It doesn't catch "real" words that are typos, and I can't be bothered to enter words it doesn't recognize into its "ignore" file.

I heartily believe in it for people who have learned to write using technology that is more forgiving than a manual typewriter...someday, for fun, try to type an "a" or ";" with your baby finger on a manual typewriter if you can find one. It takes muscles.  

[Doppelgaanger]

I use them, but yeah, they are no substitution for proofreading. 'Course, my version of FireFox checks the spelling of words automatically.

And then, what do you think about the grammar check (like in MS Word)?