I am familiar with clicking on the right side of the payee field and looking for the green @ symbol to select the address book entry. My issue is that having to do that seems like it should automatically open a drop down list and provide you that choice WITHOUT having to remember to click on the drop down EVERY time I want to write a check.

Indeed, when writing a check it would seem to be intuitive that the program should ASK for the address information if it is not already in the address book and then once entered, STORE that address into the address book.