atljim45:

I came late to the small cap party and avoided some 'hot' small cap funds in favor of two Vanguard index funds: VISVX and VISGX.  These represent about 5% of my portfolio and that is about where I want to keep my small cap exposure with a ten-year time horizon.

I am debating selling these two and putting money into a Vanguard overall small cap index fund but Morningstar ratings don't favor any fund other than VISGX.  I am really look to set and forget $10,000 in an all-small index fund.  Thoughts? 

The Morningstar ratings are based on past performance, and take no account of how a fund has changed.  All three small-cap funds have changed indexes over the period which Morningstar measures, which makes the ratings particularly questionable here; how the Russell 2000 did (very badly in the Internet bubble, because of its constribution) versus the S&P/BARRA Growth 600 (very well because it required a longer history before adding stocks) is irrelevant now that the Vanguard funds track the MSCI indexes.

NAESX (Small-Cap Index) is now exactly the union of VISGX and VISVX, so you might as well switch to the single fund; it won't change your holdings at all, and will save you in trading costs and fees (and, in the future, save you in expenses as you will reach Admiral faster).

In a taxable account, you may want to use VTMSX (Tax-Managed Small-Cap), which is less likely to distribute taxable gains and has a smaller cap range.