qwerty query

[Russ]

OK, random and stupid question: When I was taught to type, (in high school, back in the mid '90s,) I was always taught that after a period at the end of a sentence, you leave two spaces. I notice that, while texting, my cell phone auto capitalizes after a period and one space. This would be convenient if it weren't for the fact that, (according to me,) ya always leave TWO spaces after a period. So when I hit the space a 2nd time, it goes back to lower case and I have to hit the shift key to re-capitalize.

When I mentioned this to my partner, she pretty much thought I was a weirdo. She figures the two space rule is a cary-over from typewriter days, so that it would be easier to tell when one sentence ended and another began, (which might be hard to tell if your ribbon was low on ink.) She went on to say that most spell checks would probably catch two spaces as grammatical error!

So I guess the question is am I the only weirdo who was taught this? Is it still technically correct to leave two spaces? Was it ever? Am I officially old now? 30 is still the new 20 right? RIGHT? :p

[mqstout]

Your partner is right. Two spaces after words is dead. It's still marginally appropriate to use it for a monospace font (as in Courier -- which you shouldn't be using most of the time anyway). It's also okay to use it still after a colon (but even there, most of the time one space is enough).

Print (YES!) something typed with two spacing, and then single spacing and look at them. Which looks better? Which one has awkward vertical lines (white space "rivers") dragging your eye all over the page?

Sarku might have better answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing

[Old Dwarf]

I was never taught to type( I use the flying 1 finger method) but noticed spell check will flag more than a 1 spaced period.
See you can learn all kinds of stuff at TZG.

OD

[Gothicincarnation]

I was told the same thing Russ. Though I never really learned to type, I use all my fingers to type but I have to look at the keyboard and never hit the right keys with the right fingers. LOL I have over the years learned why it was like that then and not now.

MSQ and your SO are right. It is a throwback to typewriter days and mono-spaced fonts (Which 90% of all typewriters and old word processors were). When the fonts were all mono-spaced, it was harder to see the end of a sentence so 2 spaces was correct. In later years, we lost the use of Mono-Spaced Fonts (though we still have them and use them from time to time) and gained fonts that were spaced individually based on the size of the individual characters, thus removing the need for the double space.

To really see the difference, find a paragraph of some length and put it in a word program. Highlight it all and change the font to Times New Roman. Copy it again, and put it underneath the first with 2 line breaks. Don't change the font this time, but go through it and add an extra space after each period. Print the page. Now select both paragraphs and change the font to Courier New and print it again. Compare the 2 and you should see the difference.

[Sarku]

Sarku knows all... The answer is three. Thank you.

[Russ]

(02-09-2011 06:42 PM)mqstout Wrote:  Sarku might have better answers.

You were right! LOL!

[gavindowning]

[stands upon his English-teacher-soapbox]

I was taught two spaces myself. And for a very long time, that was the standard.

A few years back, it shifted to one space. Officially, it's only one space now...

...and I HATE it. Notice that I put two spaces after every sentence still? I've been in the habit since I was 10, and I'm not going to change now. Plus, I feel it looks better; it helps break up a paragraph, making it easier on the eyes, etc. I don't know what fascist organization altered the rule from two spaces to one, but I rebel!

[Russ]

Dang! Now I have to try and unlearn double spacing! It's so ingrained, I'm doing it now! I kind of want to slap my high school teachers now. I'm only 33, it's not as if I had to learn on a typewriter! They saddled me with an obsolete typing skill for no reason!

Anywho, thanks for all the input folks. I honestly didn't expect anyone to bother weighing in on the subject. It's true...ya learn all kinds of stuff on TZG!

[gavindowning]

FIGHT THE POWER, RUSS!!

[vikinglad]

I was taught to put two, and also still prefer it. I am asked about it every once in a while. Somteimes at work, I have to go back through procedures I wrote and remove my double-spaces because it is not our standard.

... 200th post!