Software "expert" says that you would have to go out of your way to produce the superscript "th". FALSE. In Word, with certain settigns, you have to go out of your way to keep it from happening automatically.
If that's what he said, he's incorrect. Microsoft Office 2000, XP, and 2003 all have auto-superscript enabled by default. If you type "187th" and hit space, the "th" will automatically superscript BY DEFAULT.