How many spaces after a period

[gogoblender 3,070]

we have always been able to customize spaces with a typewriter. You just have to set it so that it moves two spaces instead of one.

 

 

As if!

lol, c'mon myles...peeps are lazy man...in those days peeps took products "as is"

Self customizing is a contemporary child, and usually something that comes with software, internet and computers...

And with different peeps all using your gramps' huge clunky typewriter, can you honestly see everyone adjusting it for themselves?

 

hey..who remembers typewriter erasing ribbon!

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. check out this nifty old school typewriter

 

[Silearth 6]

I did notice in the grammar checker settings for word 2003, you can set it for either 1 space or 2.....

[Arilaftia 0]

we have always been able to customize spaces with a typewriter. You just have to set it so that it moves two spaces instead of one.

 

 

As if!

lol, c'mon myles...peeps are lazy man...in those days peeps took products "as is"

Self customizing is a contemporary child, and usually something that comes with software, internet and computers...

And with different peeps all using your gramps' huge clunky typewriter, can you honestly see everyone adjusting it for themselves?

 

hey..who remembers typewriter erasing ribbon!

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. check out this nifty old school typewriter

 

 

 

hahaha I had one just a few yours younger than this baby! and learned to type on it! haha (Dont knock it till you've learned to type fast on one of those deep keyed babies!) I cant tell you how many eraser ribbons I went through though! But mostly it was for fun!

Actually this thread reminded me to ask my mom for the typewriter for my son, I would like him to learn about it, many kids in the future probably wont have the opportunity LOL its getting that way now with record players!

 

oooh now I feel old.. *hobbles off to the corner*

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

heh, this thread just reminded me of my mom's typewriter...it was huuuuuuuuuge, but looked so cool at the time I guess. It was big, fat, curved and groovy. And she used to swear everytime she'd have to stick in a "correcting ribbon" to hit the key with the offending letter that would then smack the imprint of the wrong letter with a whited-out version.

If you made a mistake in those days...it was either put up with a hack job like this...or start again.

 

 

 

gogo

[myles 2]

That's just it gogo, if you ARE lazy, all the more reason for customized settings. I remember granny's ramblings over the selling price differences over the wonder machine.

 

About those dam ribbons. Get this, my mom hate it so bad that she trained herself to write better than the typewriter, so ever since I was in kindergarten my teacher has complemented me on my mothers' writing that I have lost hope in ever getting complement on my handwriting. All people told me was, I have a long way to go. Don't you think I fxxxing know that? As if a five years old can have decades of writing experiences.

 

My handwriting is very legitimate, mind you, but never talk to me about my handwriting, I explode on that count every single time. Now you know.

[gial 2]

If I recall correctly, the old IBM Selectric (or maybe a different model, I'm not really sure) had a split space bar - one side gave a single space, the other a slightly larger one for after stops.

[GothicTomcat 0]

I was taught in typing school to do two and I do two. My spelling is excellent (just one of my main pet peeves in typing), I don't like to see anyone misspelling words. Ticks me off.

 

Punctuation and things like that isn't all that hot. Even tho I'm starting to write a book.

[griffman 0]

academic writing has always been one space here! I actually can't believe there is a debate about something so non-controversial

 

P.S. it is just more economical, efficient I guess to type once the spacebar ... I really never heard of 2 spaces...must be something from an older generation but then computers has only been existed for less then half a century. as opposed to typewriters.

 

An older generation?! I'm 20 years old and I have always only used 2 spaces....

 

Now I feel old again

[myles 2]

That's just it. We have people from many generations and there are no consistency at all. Some two, some one, some swear on it, some couldn't care less.

 

I mean who would have thought a singularity like that can be so debatable? ...

[EvilMale 7]

How did I miss this..... This topic reminds me of what my typing teacher taught us in school. 2 Spaces after the period but man come on give me a break. I don't do legal documents anymore. When I was in the army we had to have 2 spaces after the period. Just for the simple fact it some of the time we were dealing with legal documents such as contracts, Disciplinary actions, Promotions,and such. And such things like that were legal documents that the higher up's would read and review. But now I will admit it I am too lazy to go through my writings and do things proper.

Edited November 21, 2007 by EvilMale

[Seductive_Vampie 0]

We were always taught that it was two spaces after the punctuation. Oh and as for the typerwriter thing I still have one somewhere that calls for an erasing ribbon! HAHAHA!

[Funkilicious 1]

If we are going back in time, do you remember when the first sentence of a paragraph used to be tabbed in, the letter form has now modernised so that all paragraphs now start at the margin but still the two spaces after a period is the norm, don't forget a majority of my work is performed in Legal Practices so still very formal.

[OuttaTown 0]

Interesting

This forum software is american...I wonder if they're trying to save space?

And DaveO I swear by firefox spellchecker...

 

+++

 

 

gogo

 

I do not think it is about lazification - it is more about efficiency!

[gguirao 1]

I used to use two, until about three years ago. My typing teacher told me it was acceptable to use one.

[Roby 0]

Gogo, the days of typesetters who took pride and worked by hand to make text pleasing to the eyes are long gone. There seems to be a belief that the two spaces went away due to proportional fonts and justified text (text aligned to both the left and right margins) but this is not true. To demonstrate that extra spaces were once used after period see the following link to Charles Darwin's 1846 published journal.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=gR0d3G6Xz...OSZAQ#PPA274,M1

 

As was already mentioned, the reasoning behind having two spaces after a period is to visually break sentences. This makes it easier for the reader. Why printed material today is mostly void of extra spacing after a period is debatable. Most probably it is to save space and because it is easier. Pickup an older book and you will see there is a distinction between spacing after periods and commas (I looked at a 1971 reprint of the 1927 book "Mein Kampf" and there is a difference in spacing after periods and commas).

 

But this is not answering your question. Well, if you are planning on submitting anything for publications only put one space after a period. Publishers don't like extra spaces after a period just like they do not like fancy quotation marks either. So stick to the common " not the fancy “ ” ones. For other correspondence there really is no true right or wrong way. But, the purist I am, I still put two spaces after every period. Two years of typing classes have made it an automatic reflex.

 

As for single spaces here? Well, HTML loves eating spaces and this board does not seem to support no-break spaces (&nbsp). Talking about spaces, what about em-spaces and en-spaces?

[gogoblender 3,070]

Alas, roby, I find myself still puting those double spaces after the period. It's been drummed in on pain of a lower mark. When we had to do our speed typing tests for the Deaf Relay, we had to consistantly hit 60 words per minute. This on top of having to remember, "uhhh... is it one or two... ?" Made getting the speed necessary.

 

I've been putting in two spaces as a habit, but have come to rely upon software to decide, better or worse, how it comes out. I'll keep in mind what you wrote about the proper number of spaces regarding publishing however... good to know if I plan on becoming a literary knockout.

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. And btw, welcome to DarkMatters!

[Knuckles 904]

I never ever heard of 2 spaces until reading this thread. Maybe I wasn't paying attention during English class (definite possibility) but have always used one space. Most of my typing now involves technical drawings/guides so just one space in all those. Is the one space/two space more of a cultural/regional thing? All my schooling was in New England. I never took any typing classes so have no idea.

[Schot 407]

I was taught the way of the two space as well. In Canada, Ontario that is. Couldn't say for
certain myself of whether it's regional or not but boy was it ever ingrained to my head. Even after all
these years of typing on the net and knowing full well only one space is being used I still hit the space bar
twice after a period. In fact it has bothered me that my two spaces have not be translated for the
longest time. So much so that I built a bbcode about a year ago on the forum here to correct it, lol. As
you all may have guessed I am using said bbcode. The bbcode was actually made in order to maintain
simple table format spacing being posted here on the forum. Feel free to use it if you like though!

The unfortunate thing in all of this is that if you use the spaces bbcode it means you must also add in your
own line breaks using the Enter key other wise your text will flow off the screen. Doesn't seem to be an
easy way around it sadly.

Just put everything you type inside the below tag:

[spaces]Your text[/spaces]

You can also have that bbcode placed into your text automatically from the drop down menu "Insert Special Item".

[Funkilicious 1]

Isn't it just easier to tap the spacebar:)

[gogoblender 3,070]

 

gogo

[Totalimmortal 0]

Does this forum software automatically delete the extra space. After the period?

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. omg, it does...we're being forcibly dumbillated!

 

 

 

I know this is I guess old news, but the grammatically correct way to type is having 2, yes, 2. and I mean 2... spaces after a period. the reason that the forum does that is because it is HTML... you need the   to add additional spaces. if a space is at the beginning of a post, it will not reformat the post. this is the same thing with middle of the post text (for the most part. this is supposed to have 10 spaces in between it. idk if it will work) just food for thought... but yes, its 2 spaces.

 

edit: ps... I also put like 100 spaces in front of the "quote" tag, just to re-prove my theory to myself. I have random spacing between words and it still formats them together.

 

-Total

Edited April 22, 2008 by Totalimmortal

[Schot 407]

Isn't it just easier to tap the spacebar:)

 

lol, I had a good chuckle despite myself after reading that. hahaha. So true! But but... Think of all those wonderful spaces!

[Putrescine 11]

Lol Schot!

 

[Spock 271]

... I was taught that it's two...but now peeps are saying that it's one. ...

 

I was also taught 2 spaces but that has now changed due to common usage and HTML. HTML will remove not only extra spaces between words but line feeds, tabs, everything and display the text a words separated by a single space. Because of that, it doesn't do any good to put more than one, so why bother?

 

Sorry if someone has already posted this answer but I'm in a hurry to leave for an appointment with my daughter and didn't take the time to read everything.