one space or two?

[myboynoah]

For some reason it drives me crazy when I see two spaces after a period. _ _ The second space seems excessive with modern proportional fonts, and I find it visually distracting. _ _ But then other people tell me I'm nuts. _ _ Surely I'm not alone in this?

Wow, how timely. I'm responsible for compiling and editing a major public market research document for publication in the near future and I've been discussing this with a colleague. I'm going with one space, as well as spelling out percent. I should write a style guide.

[Clark Addison]

I do two spaces out of habit, because I am old and was taught on a typewriter. Remarkably, I do not seem to have found a strong position on this.

[Solon]

I do two spaces out of habit, because I am old and was taught on a typewriter. Remarkably, I do not seem to have found a strong position on this.

Same for me. I learned to type on a typewriter and the habit is just too ingrained. I ran into grief on my MA years ago from a prof. on my committee who wanted me to go back and take out one of the spaces after each sentence (on a 100-page thesis). I told him no.

[wuapinmon]

Same for me. I learned to type on a typewriter and the habit is just too ingrained. I ran into grief on my MA years ago from a prof. on my committee who wanted me to go back and take out one of the spaces after each sentence (on a 100-page thesis). I told him no.

Quark Express's find & replace function would make two spaces into one. When I edited this student journal, we did it and it shaved two whole pages off the journal; times 300 copies, that saved us around $40-50. I can imagine if you were running millions of copies of Harry Potter how a one space would be preferable.

My committee wanted only one space because they made me use courier new font, so the double space looks really bad in that type. Luckily, MS Word can now find and replace the way only Ventura and Quark used to be able to do, so I changed it before it was set for publishing.

[Babs]

Art, what does orthography mean?

This word shows up now and again on CGCUF, usually when the more typographically persnickety among us are ranting. Ortho means right and graph means write. Orthography is the study of right writing, and more specifically the minutiae of writing correctly: letters, punctuation, SPACING, and so on.

Wow, how timely. I'm responsible for compiling and editing a major public market research document for publication in the near future and I've been discussing this with a colleague. I'm going with one space, as well as spelling out percent. I should write a style guide.

I'd buy it!!

[Solon]

Quark Express's find & replace function would make two spaces into one. When I edited this student journal, we did it and it shaved two whole pages off the journal; times 300 copies, that saved us around $40-50. I can imagine if you were running millions of copies of Harry Potter how a one space would be preferable.

My committee wanted only one space because they made me use courier new font, so the double space looks really bad in that type. Luckily, MS Word can now find and replace the way only Ventura and Quark used to be able to do, so I changed it before it was set for publishing.

Interesting. The thesis rules at my school have become way more relaxed in the last five years now that we don't have to submit hard-copies. It's all done in .pdf, so they don't really get uptight about margins, font, character-spacing, etc. The thesis editor only checks for correct titles, dates, page numbers, and other obvious things. Formatting the dissertation is much easier than was my Masters back in 2002.

[RobinFinderson]

I'm a two-spacer out of habit. It is also what I was taught, way back in the late 80's. Has one-spacing always been an option, or has it recently become stylistically acceptable, like ending a sentence with a preposition or beginning a sentence with a conjunction?

[Solon]

I'm a two-spacer out of habit. It is also what I was taught, way back in the late 80's. Has one-spacing always been an option, or has it recently become stylistically acceptable, like ending a sentence with a preposition or beginning a sentence with a conjunction?

I'll start using just one space as soon as engineers reconfigure the keyboard to make it more efficient.

[Babs]

I'm a two-spacer out of habit. It is also what I was taught, way back in the late 80's. Has one-spacing always been an option, or has it recently become stylistically acceptable, like ending a sentence with a preposition or beginning a sentence with a conjunction?

Not exactly, those are more a matter of rules adapting to reflect vernacular usage that's already in place. This is a matter of rules adapting to reflect how fonts have changed with the advent of word processing.

[RobinFinderson]

Not exactly, those are more a matter of rules adapting to reflect vernacular usage that's already in place. This is a matter of rules adapting to reflect how fonts have changed with the advent of word processing.

Interesting... I was looking at my post and trying to compare it to yours, to see which I preferred, the single or the double space. To my eye they looked the same, so I tried to drag-select the space after one of my sentences, and low, there was only a single space. Whatever the opinion of we the double-spacers, HTML (or whatever supernatural force runs V-Bulletin) seems to enforce the one-space rule against our will. I had never noticed before, but now I feel more than a little violated.

[wuapinmon]

Formatting the dissertation is much easier than was my Masters back in 2002.

Yeah BYU was a major pain-in-the-ass about this. _I_ had to print four copies of the damned thing, myself, and then take it to the binding center, and then deliver them to the library, the Grad School, my department, and my College's Dean.

Tulane, I sent them the file with the margins all correct, and they took care of it all. All I had to buy was 100% cotton paper for my department's copy. BYU, I shelled out over $250 getting the damned thing copied, for no one to EVER READ EVER.

http://primofe1.byu.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?ct=display&doc=byu_unicorn3126636&indx=1&fromLogin=true&vl%28freeText0%29=Rift%20of%20the%20magi&fn=search&dstmp=1264877565082&tab=default_tab&indx=1&vid=byu-cl&scp.scps=scope%3A%28LEE%29%2Cscope%3A%28BYU%29%2Cscope%3A%28LAW%29%2Cscope%3A%28byugle%29%2Cscope%3A%28Unicorn_online%29%2Cscope%3A%28CONTENTdm%29%2Cscope%3A%28JUV%29%2Cscope%3A%28SPEC%29%2Cscope%3A%28INTERNET%29%2Cscope%3A%28SWKT%29%2Cscope%3A%28SLC%29%2Cscope%3A%28LEELRC%29%2Cscope%3A%28MUSIC%29%2Cscope%3A%28saskia%29&mode=Basic&dscnt=0

If that ever says anything other than "Available," I will pass a brick.

[mtnbiker]

I'll start using just one space as soon as engineers reconfigure the keyboard to make it more efficient.

Ever heard of the Dvorak keyboard? It's much more efficient, and particularly helpful to those with carpal tunnel problems. I don't use it, but know some people who do. I guess you'll be single-spacing from now on.

Interesting... I was looking at my post and trying to compare it to yours, to see which I preferred, the single or the double space. To my eye they looked the same, so I tried to drag-select the space after one of my sentences, and low, there was only a single space. Whatever the opinion of we the double-spacers, HTML (or whatever supernatural force runs V-Bulletin) seems to enforce the one-space rule against our will. I had never noticed before, but now I feel more than a little violated.

Go back and read my post from last night. It's the browser, not vbulletin.

[Parrot Head]

I think I'll switch to single spacing about a day or two before I convert to writing in that crappy text messaging format. ur l8! lol.

And, Waup -- wow, that's a doozy of a title. I was going to make a joke about it, but I don't want to insult all the effort you must have put into it.

[wuapinmon]

And, Waup -- wow, that's a doozy of a title. I was going to make a joke about it, but I don't want to insult all the effort you must have put into it.

Men have died for less. Make fun all you want; I don't mind.

[cowboy]

You can't give a period too much space. Maybe I'm just old school that way.