Thread: Spacing at the end of sentences

Hello,

Here's my problem. I'm an old guy and I can't get out of the habit of leaving 2 spaces at the end of sentences.

I'm using Word 2003. Is there some setting that I could use to reformat an already written pieces so only one space would be between sentences?

Thank you for your time saving help.

Who told you to get out of the habit of leaving two spaces at the end of sentences? I thought that was industry-standard. I do it all the time, and I'm in my late twenties.

Unfortunately, I don't think Word is tailored for such a thing. It can find and replace words for you, but that's about the extent of its abilities. Someone may prove me wrong on that score.

Both of you need to get out of the habit and quick. I used to do it, but I managed to get out of the habit. I found an amusing article about it and it includes a bit about why people deemed it necessary in the first place. Both the MLA Style Book and the Chicago Manual of Style indicate you shouldn't use two spaces.

Why You Should Never, Ever Use Two Spaces Between Sentences

Of course there's also the amusing rebuttal for that article here:

You Can Have My Double Space When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands


Oh, and just for SnG, why not open your Find/Replace option on your document and press your space bar twice in the 'find' field and once in the 'replace' field. I'm pretty sure that will work.

This is another lazy Americanism. Anyone who has learnt to type properly in the UK has always been taught to double space after a full stop.

I wonder how long it will be before someone is trying to convince us that novels need to be written in text speech?

@Baron srsly, i no rite?

I don't think it's particularly "American" to not put two spaces after a full stop nor would I say it's due to laziness. In the past, when typewriters were the norm it made sense to teach putting a double-space after a full stop because the characters were all monospaced, but computer word processors have been around for a long time now and have consequently caused the double-space to become somewhat redundant.

Originally Posted by Baron

This is another lazy Americanism. Anyone who has learnt to type properly in the UK has always been taught to double space after a full stop.

It's not lazy Americanism, double spaces were a compensation for typewriters which had mono-spaced typing. Now that letters are proportionally spaced, there is no need for another space. Same thing as caps lock: the remains of dead technology.

I wonder how long it will be before someone is trying to convince us that novels need to be written in text speech?

The thought of narrating hundreds of thousands of words makes me want to quit writing if this ever happens.

Originally Posted by Offeiriad

You Can Have My Double Space When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands

I didn't even know that there was any fight over it. Two spaces are important because it's easier to see that there's actually a new sentence; otherwise why not just have commas for everything. It's simply a struggle to see different sentences in a block of writing when they're one spaced. One spaced promoters clearly mustn't read much.

Originally Posted by Rustgold

I didn't even know that there was any fight over it. Two spaces are important because it's easier to see that there's actually a new sentence; otherwise why not just have commas for everything. it's simply a struggle to see different sentences in a block of writing when they're one spaced. One spaced promoters clearly don't read much.

Differentiating between sentences and words is what proportionally-spaced fonts are for. I didn't know there was a disagreement over the issue, either... but I thought it was the double-space after the period that was pretty much dead.

I agree, I have always heard double space after periods and do it. I will pretty much continue to do it because I feel it gives the end and beginning of a sentence a better look.

In the end I don't think it matters how you do it, in the end it only matters how the publisher does it.

To instantly change all of your double spaces to single spaces, use the find and replace tool. Find "[double space bar]" and then Replace with "[single space bar]" I have made 10,000 corrections instantaneously that way.

To all of the people promoting double spaces after sentences... All of your posts have one space per sentence

Originally Posted by elite

To all of the people promoting double spaces after sentences... All of your posts have one space per sentence

That only applies if you use justified text.

That's because the forum doesn't allow anything else. I still double space.