And it's baaack - one space or two?

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Author Message Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 2242 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 10:03 am:    From the WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-who-type-two-spaces-after-a-period-just-cant-win-11591199528?mod=itp_wsj&mod=&mod=djemITP_h Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 769 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 10:57 am:    Spaces--the final frontier. Ellis C. Whitby, PE, CSI, CDT, AIA, LEED Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 531 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 11:03 am:    Darn: Behind a paywall Ronald J. Ray, RA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP, AIA Senior Member Username: rjray Post Number: 197 Registered: 04-2004 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 11:07 am:    A brief observation from inside my bubble: Dave Metzger: One of the smartest and funniest people I know. Marc Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 595 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 11:23 am:    Two space people: 1. do not understand the difference between monospaced typefaces and variable-width typefaces. 2. do not understand the difference between a typewriter and a computer. 3. are only capable of typing screen plays (which "must" be typed in 12 point Courier (or close cousin) 4. should be purged from the earth (along with most screen plays for that matter) Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 2243 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 11:27 am:    Sorry about the pay wall thing - and it's too difficult to copy/paste, besides being a bit unethical for me to do that. Here's some of it at the end, though: "We have to get across that while the practice of using two spaces may have originated due to the mechanical limitations of typewriters, there are very real advantages that remain valid and important today," said Mr. Daiker. Ms. Fogarty, the author, wasn't swayed. "I don't think two-spacers will have much long-term success fighting both prevailing standards and the general ubiquity of one-space writing," she wrote in a one-spaced email." Mr. Daiker is a Miami lawyer with a podcast; Ms. Fogarty wrote the "Grammar Girl" books. He invited her to his podcast. Phil Kabza Senior Member Username: phil_kabza Post Number: 663 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 12:16 pm:    ' Del Double Space Insert Single Space Selection.Find.ClearFormatting Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting With Selection.Find .Text = " " .Replacement.Text = " " .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue End With Selection.Find.Execute Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Phil Kabza FCSI CCS AIA SpecGuy Specifications Consultants www.SpecGuy.com phil@specguy.com Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 770 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 01:05 pm:    Ron: Thank you for the kind words. You're very discerning yourself. John Bunzick Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1812 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 01:22 pm:    Or, to simplify Phil's macro, search and replace (ctrl-h), search two spaces replace with one. Repeat (in case there are 3 spaces somewhere). Rosa Cheney Senior Member Username: rdcaia Post Number: 15 Registered: 07-2018 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 02:40 pm:    We had this exact conversation in our office recently. This related article was pretty entertaining to read. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/04/one-space-between-each-sentence-they-said-science-just-proved-them-wrong-2/ Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: michael_chusid Post Number: 534 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 02:53 pm:    I don 't und ers tandwhatthe bi g f u s s is a bout Awriter is ent it le d to us e spacing creativ ly Besi des puct ua tion should also be optional The ancient Roman s go t along just fine without spaces or punctuation THEYWOULDWRITELIKETHISYOUCANSEEHOWMUCHMOREEFFICIENTITISTHISTECHNIQUEISITISCALLEDSCRIPTACONTINUUM Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS 1-818-219-4937 www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru Mark Gilligan SE, Senior Member Username: mark_gilligan Post Number: 936 Registered: 10-2007 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 03:36 pm:    I have consistently used two spaces in everything I write including specifications, guidelines, and papers that I authored. This has not resulted in any feedback from the users of the documents that two spaces caused any problems. Marc Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 596 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2020 - 03:56 pm:    Punctuation was invented to help public speakers (BTW) loved Rosa's article...conclusion 2 spaces is better....oh wait.. they used Courier in the test! bit of a self fulfilling prophecy there...I still stnad by what I said before.....if you use 2 spaces "The angels weep for you" PS great weekend read: Shady Characters from https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/ Deborah Corr (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Friday, June 05, 2020 - 11:30 am:    Hitting 'space' twice when texting automatically puts a period and starts a new sentence. That kind of automation will ensure us two-spacers continue to exist. Dan Helphrey Senior Member Username: dbhelphrey Post Number: 58 Registered: 12-2018 Posted on Monday, June 08, 2020 - 05:16 pm:    I work with so many documents that are garbaged up with extra spaces everywhere that using search and replace to delete all multiple spaces is one of the first steps in my regular QC process (also getting rid of spaces immediately before or after returns and tabs). Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 1048 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Monday, June 08, 2020 - 05:57 pm:    Yes, hitting space twice inserts a period and starts a new sentence - with a single space after the period. Deborah Corr (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Tuesday, June 09, 2020 - 09:37 am:    Sheldon - it's the perfect solution! I get to hit the spacebar twice but the machine decides to save the space. Until the desktop machine does the same, my typed documents will have two spaces. I think it's a win-win. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 1130 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Tuesday, June 09, 2020 - 11:58 am:    I believe the one space / two space situation is left over from when we used typesetting. If I remember correctly, one space was an "en space" (the width of the "n" character) which was used to separate words. An "em space" (the width of the "m" character) was used to separate sentences after other punctuation, not at the end of a paragraph. This may have originated with someone's notion that it made printed copy easier to read or read aloud, but I am not sure about that. I think if you look very closely at "word processed" text, you will see that the space after a period (or other punctuation ending a sentence) is slightly wider that the space between words within a sentence. I really have not taken out my pica ruler to see if this is true. This is preserved when the text is sent to a printer where the printer software plays around with various parameters to provide printed copy that it thinks you want. This is why a document (particularly a long document in an obscure font) doesn't print out the same way on different printers, even when sent from a PDF file. All bets are off with full justification with extra space added between words to make up the justified line. Then there is the difference between the "en dash" (what we would typically call a hyphen) and the "em dash" (what we would typically call a dash). MS Word will usually change a double dash to an em dash automatically. J. Peter Jordan, FCSI, AIA, CCS, LEED AP, SCIP Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: michael_chusid Post Number: 536 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, June 09, 2020 - 12:49 pm:    This forum changes double (or triple) spacing after a period to single spacing. I am using triple space after this sentence. I am using double space after this sentence. I am using single space after this sentence. More, this forum changes double spaces into single space wherever it is used. I have typed double spaces between words in this sentence. Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS 1-818-219-4937 www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru Marc Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 597 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Tuesday, June 09, 2020 - 01:13 pm:    pixies - that has nothing to do with technology. John Bunzick Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1813 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, June 09, 2020 - 02:31 pm:    Manuscripts produced for publication, such as magazines and books, cannot contain double spacing, and it has been that way for years. Scripts and court filings are another matter, as they are truly stuck. MasterSpec took it out years ago. It really is a vestige of non-kerned uniform width characters from a typewriter. Nowadays, there's really no point, and style manuals I've seen recommend not using them.