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two spaces or one



 
 
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  #31  
Old April 4th, 2010, 06:11 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
Terry Farrell
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,004
Default two spaces or one

Surely back in the days when printing was achieved by placing mirror
characters onto a plate, there must have been a set of spaces for different
uses (following a comma, following quotation marks, following an end of
sentence stop, etc.). The typewriter had a limited availability of
characters, so the number of different spaces was sacrificed - hence the
need for a double space after the end-of-sentence stop.

Sometimes when I read my daily newspaper, I wish they would return to 'hot
metal' presses!

Terry Farrell

"CyberTaz" wrote in message
.. .
Exactly the point...

It wasn't until the introduction of the typewriter that the concept of "a"
space took on any finite dimension. The objective of "space between
sentences" is for the purpose of visual clarity, but the appropriate
amount
of space is subjectively predicated on what precedes & follows the space.
I
seriously doubt that '2 spaces' ever dripped from the tongue or even
crossed
the mind of Guttenberg.

As so often happens, laxity in communication is what has triggered this
seemingly unending but totally unfounded debate. My 'guess' is that the
actual original instruction was "Press the spacebar twice after a period."
because pressing the spacebar once often did not create a sufficient
amount
of space. The compensatory workaround for *increasing the amount of space*
became loosely translated into "type 2 spaces".

Logically there can't be "2 spaces" -- the size of the 1 space is either
more or less, narrower or wider. To accomplish the objective on a
typewriter
necessitates pressing the space bar a second time, whereas the precise
adjustment of that space is intrinsic to proportional fonts.

Regards |:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac



  #32  
Old April 4th, 2010, 06:53 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
bj[_4_]
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Posts: 29
Default two spaces or one

"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...

Sometimes when I read my daily newspaper, I wish they would return to 'hot
metal' presses!


The way things are going, you won't have to worry about what's *on* the
paper -- there won't *be* any paper, it'll all be online. Maybe a Daily
Linker to give titles & article links. Probably all by e-mail.

I sure do spend a lot less time on the (ever-shrinking) daily paper than I
used to! even the Sunday paper doesn't take that long anymore. It's
confusing my routine. :-)
bj
(what are they lining bird-cages with now?)

  #33  
Old April 4th, 2010, 07:12 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
Suzanne S. Barnhill
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31,786
Default two spaces or one

Along with not trimming, there is the issue of not noticing that you are
posting your answer in an existing line, which is going to start with a
quote character. This makes it very hard to determine where the reply
begins, since it appears to be part of the quoted text.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...
What really annoys me about bottom posting is that many perpetrators NEVER
trim the post. I agree that keeping at least the previous answer when you
reply is necessary, but sometimes replies are so far down the page I just
refuse to scroll down to read the answer.

Top posting a simple answer to a simple question seems to work really well
in here where most users top post.

Terry Farrell

"Twayne" wrote in message
...
In ,
Dave Symes typed:
In article ,
Tom Willett wrote:
[Snippy]

The bottom line is, who really cares? Except maybe those
who chastise others for top posting ;-)

Top posting is a heinous crime, for which you should be
flogged around the fleet.


On some sites. But here the concensus seems to be that it doesn't matter.
I bottom post unless there is already a top post; then I top post to keep
it all aligned.
It's a silly thing for anyone to argue about or even debate, actually.
Netiquette & most gurus believe in the trim & inline, then bottom if no
inline. Personally I couldn't care which. I stay out of trouble by
simply using what the concensus is. Oh, and ignoring dummies who troll to
make an arguement out of it.

I agree - who really cares?

HTH,

Twayne`

Dave

And no emoticon get-out, it's a serious business y'know.

:-\~






  #34  
Old April 4th, 2010, 07:17 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
Suzanne S. Barnhill
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 31,786
Default two spaces or one

When compositors set type by hand, they insert spaces of varying widths to
make up the line. A Linotype automatically inserts the correct number of
thin spaces between words to justify the line (the Linotypist types all the
characters, pressing the spacebar once after each; when he hits Return, the
machine does the spacing automatically, just as in Word). In some
typesetting manual, I saw an instruction to leave "the space of the line"
(that is, the automatic space, whatever that turns out to be) after a
period, which would mean one press of the spacebar.

By and large, if you examine contemporary printed books from mainline
publishing houses, you'll see this convention followed, but if you look at
older books (typeset in the nineteenth century, for example), you may well
see more space between sentences.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...
Surely back in the days when printing was achieved by placing mirror
characters onto a plate, there must have been a set of spaces for
different uses (following a comma, following quotation marks, following an
end of sentence stop, etc.). The typewriter had a limited availability of
characters, so the number of different spaces was sacrificed - hence the
need for a double space after the end-of-sentence stop.

Sometimes when I read my daily newspaper, I wish they would return to 'hot
metal' presses!

Terry Farrell

"CyberTaz" wrote in message
.. .
Exactly the point...

It wasn't until the introduction of the typewriter that the concept of
"a"
space took on any finite dimension. The objective of "space between
sentences" is for the purpose of visual clarity, but the appropriate
amount
of space is subjectively predicated on what precedes & follows the space.
I
seriously doubt that '2 spaces' ever dripped from the tongue or even
crossed
the mind of Guttenberg.

As so often happens, laxity in communication is what has triggered this
seemingly unending but totally unfounded debate. My 'guess' is that the
actual original instruction was "Press the spacebar twice after a
period."
because pressing the spacebar once often did not create a sufficient
amount
of space. The compensatory workaround for *increasing the amount of
space*
became loosely translated into "type 2 spaces".

Logically there can't be "2 spaces" -- the size of the 1 space is either
more or less, narrower or wider. To accomplish the objective on a
typewriter
necessitates pressing the space bar a second time, whereas the precise
adjustment of that space is intrinsic to proportional fonts.

Regards |:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac




  #35  
Old April 4th, 2010, 08:31 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
CyberTaz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,362
Default two spaces or one

snip
On 4/4/10 12:48 PM, in article ,
"Twayne" wrote:


Yeah, but ... wouldn't you consider cursive writing to be moot
compared to a set of keys?

snip

Absolutely not.

The purpose of the space is based on the same fundamental principle
regardless of the technology being used to produce the document :-)

Regards |:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

  #36  
Old April 4th, 2010, 11:24 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
Twayne[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 135
Default two spaces or one

In ,
Suzanne S. Barnhill typed:
Along with not trimming, there is the issue of not noticing
that you are posting your answer in an existing line, which
is going to start with a quote character. This makes it
very hard to determine where the reply begins, since it
appears to be part of the quoted text.


Gotta agree there! A Return before and after a response
improves readability a LOT.

HTH,

Twayne`


  #37  
Old April 12th, 2010, 04:38 AM posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
Tim Mastrogiacomo
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 21
Default two spaces or one

On Apr 2, 1:34*pm, "Stephen Larivee" wrote:
What is the preferred way of typing today, to put one or two spaces at the
end of a sentence?


It seems like using two spaces is becoming less popular, but you still
them used consistently it in certain technical manuals that have many
decimals, symbols, etc. In those situations they make the text more
readable.


Tim Mastrogiacomo


 




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