Following a period, one or two spaces?

[Grenage]

When I was in school (25 now), I'm sure that I was taught to use two spaces after a period; in fact I am positive. Regardless, to this day I still use two spaces at the beginning of each new sentence following a period.

The reason I bring this up is because nobody else in my office has ever heard of this rule (apparently). Have any of you?

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[Ladyazh]

Interesting!
I typed 'Hello. Where have you been?' into Word and ran spell check and it went fine both times with 1 and 2 spaces.
Then I've changed it to 'Hello.Where have you been?' and I've gotten RED warning.
When I let it change it inserted 1 space after the period. So? What do you think?
1 or 2?

 

[DTSMAN]

I never heard of APA till I returned to college recently and one space was what we were told for our papers. Here is a link along the same lines.

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/t3/wsr/csc120/wp1spa97.htm

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

 

[IknowMe]

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one"

Good job CC.

Wow, I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.
I think I've forgotten this before.

 

[Skie]

IMHO, you should do the double-space. There are times when documents are written using a monospaced font. If the writers don't know to double-space with this font, then it makes the document difficult to read. Plus, there isn't a negative impact for double-spacing a proportional font.

 

[gbaughma]

Two spaces after the end of a sentence... one space after ellipses; semi-colons, and commas. Simple enough.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[gbaughma]

Reminds me of a joke... (<sigh... probably get flagged for this one>)

Punctuate the following sentence:

Fun fun fun trouble trouble trouble




Answer:

Fun (period) Fun (period) fun (NO PERIOD) Trouble! Trouble! Trouble!



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[IknowMe]

Took me a minute to warp (errr.. let me run that through the TT spell checker) wrap my mind around that one GB.


Wow, I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.
I think I've forgotten this before.

 

[Lunatic]

I don't get it...

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[pinkgecko]

Had to have it explained to me too. If you're easily offended, don't try

 

[gbaughma]

(hint for those who didn't get it)

I always tell my Wife... better a period than a question mark.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[Lunatic]

Ah... what a fertile mind must have come up with that one! Got it.



***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[philhege]

Absolutely pregnant with meaning.

/I'm spending too much time on Fark

Phil Hegedusich
Senior Programmer/Analyst
IIMAK

http://www.iimak.com

-----------
I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa.

 

[SamBones]

One space here.

And I recommend two excellent books on formatting and visual style with a computer...

The PC is Not a typewriter
The Mac is Not a Typewriter

 

[RCorrigan]

Basically all the English people tend to think their right...even if they tell us different sentance structures.

ALLEnglish people are right .... Thanks for that

their right ermmmmmmmmmm

<Do I need A Signature or will an X do?>

 

[Welshbird]

I do wonder if all English people are right? But I do understand what you mean by that.

As I am Welsh rather than English a friend once bought be a book entitled "The Xenophobes Guide to the English". One comment that stayed in my mind was:

"The English believe that they are, actually, better than everyone else. And they believe that deep down, everyone else knows that too..."

Still makes me smile!

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[Tarwn]

Not to confuse the issue further, but most document creation app's (I'm thinking MS Word as an example) have the ability to apply a style across the length of a document. In this case it is very easy to modify the "Normal Text" settings to include extra separation after the end of a sentence.
So while this option does not help resolve the initial question one way or another, it is a fast and easy way to space out a document that you receive from a single-space typist.

 

[Lunatic]

Okay, having never used the style creation, how difficult would it be to distinguish when extra spaces are needed?

For example:
[blue]Today, at Mail Boxes Etc. I saw Fred Smith Jr. buying tape. He also had cheese.[/blue]

How likely is it to turn out:

[blue]Today, at Mail Boxes Etc. I saw Fred Smith Jr. buying tape. He also had cheese.[/blue]

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[CajunCenturion]

You should not use two spaces after the 'Etc.' and 'Jr.' because neither of those periods represent a full stop. The debate only is in play at the end of a sentence.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Lunatic]

CC

Yes. Tarwn provided an option for having Word (or other word processing programs) perform the spacing for you automatically. I was questioning how often such a style-set solution would cause problems with periods that do not indicate a full stop.

I was wondering if it would incorrectly return the second sentence due to the rules it used. One example, "Mail Boxes Etc. I" showed a non-full stop period followed by a captial letter and the other, "Fred Smith Jr. buying" does not. I was wondering if such a style design could account for both.

However, as is common, I was not specific in what I was refering to.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[kmcginn]

2 spaces here too. Sorry, but I think it's an "old school" thing, and I fit right into that category!