Because Word is designed for the user to type in strings at the keyboard, then format them based on some rules the user also selected. It wasn't designed to do programatic string manipulation.
>I've long ago wondered why does VFP handle strings better than Word. Whenever I had to do some heavy string manipulation in Word, in the end I did it in VFP and pretty much only used automation to store the end result.
Craig Berntson
MCSD, Microsoft .Net MVP, Grape City Community Influencer