Separate variable for "specify" responses?

[I][edited from support email][/I]
One issue I have is with a scale response and a 'specify' option. This confuses two different types of data, numerical and string. In other words, if you have a scale response of 1-6 whereas 6 = Other but then you want the participant to specify what 'other' is, your program puts the specify answer in the scaled response column making the value of six a string field instead. This makes additional work down the road as these will have to be teased out. Why can't it created a separate variable as it should for this 'specify' variable?