Dear Johanna,

It will come as no surprise to you that you are right and they are wrong.
The web editors may have their own web-related reasons for such a
hyphen-removing rule, but it is not the rule that rules in most other
print-related media.

JVB

At 11:02 PM 3/22/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Is it still 'the rule' to hyphenate multi-word modifiers when they occur
>in front of their heads, but not after it, as in:
>
>The child is six years old.
>The six-year-old child ...
>
>This is an extension for a laptop computer.
>This is a laptop-computer extension. ?
>
>I was recently compiling an editing-tips webpage (there it is again!) for
>my students, and decided to spell-check it on Netscape. Netscape told me
>to remove ALL hyphens in multi-word premodifiers. My word processor
>doesn't do this. Is there confusion out there in Webworld? Or in my addled
>brain?
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
>English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
>San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
>Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374                   ~
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]                           ~
>Office hours Winter 1999: Mon/Wed 10:10-11am Thurs 2:10-3pm   ~
>Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba                     ~
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
James Vanden Bosch              (616) 957-6592
Department of English           [log in to unmask]
Calvin College                  fax: (616) 957-8508
Grand Rapids, MI 49546          http://www.calvin.edu/~vand