What's wrong with number checking?

[DanielH]

A user sent in this question:

Why does the check of numbers in text skip some numbers? Many numbers are not caught in the Arabic/written check ("one-year", "two years", "2 different activism indexes", "3 different events"...).

[DanielH]

There is a balance in how PerfectIt is set. It's important it doesn't flag too many locations as mistakes when they are really not. And it's important it doesn't skip too many items. Here's what we wrote in the Help file:

Style guides often suggest that authors should spell numbers out rather than use numerals in sentences. However, they typically suggest that there are instances where numerals are preferred. Such usage varies between guides but may include numerals for:

· Numbers expressed in thousands, millions, billions, etc [ eg 4 billion]
· Ages [eg 12 years old]
· Measurements [eg 23 miles]
· Ranges [eg 4 to 7]
· Categories / lists of groups [eg 7 of 10 dentists]
· Ordinals [eg 4th, 6th]

PerfectIt has been designed to focus on instances where numerals in sentences are most likely to be errors. As a result, PerfectIt usually will not find an error if the usage is in any of the above categories.

I can see that skipping them could be frustrating in some cases - I'll look into this and see if we can turn off some of these defaults in a PerfectIt update. Stay tuned!