space between words

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Guest

Hi
Is there any way to stop this annoying business of two spaces between words?
Granted, we used to do it that way, until about the time of the Industrial
Revolution, but now we don't.
Thanks
Phil
 
What annoying business? Word doesn't produce two spaces between words. Where
are you seeing them?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.
 
I didn't realize my "business typing" class, which I took ca. 1968, was all
that close to the Industrial Revolution. ;-) We were taught to space twice
after sentence-ending punctuation. This was to improve readability when
using fixed pitched fonts.

It wasn't until 1988, when I began writing for publishers that I was told
that two spaces were verboten when using proportionally spaced fonts. Hence,
all of my publishing clients since that time have insisted on single spaces
between sentences.

Even so, many who were taught to type in the 1960s and earlier, but who
never wrote professionally, were never taught the single-spacing rule when
using proportional spacing. 40+ years of habit are hard to overcome, and
when they moved to word processors, they simply kept on doing what they'd
already done.

You *can* tell Word's grammar to mark 1 or 2 spaces as a "grammar" error, if
you like. Tools - Options - Spelling & Grammar - Settings. But, getting
others to use a single space is awfully hard to do. I've given up trying to
convert others, and simply routinely replace all double spaces with single
spaces when I receive document from typewriter-trained colleagues.
 
Hi
It's everywhere, by default. Two spaces. Like this. Have to go into every
paragraph and remove one of the spaces manually. Herb is right. 2 spaces no
mo'
 
Word never introduces spaces where you don't press the spacebar. If you are
dealing with a document received from someone else, you can remove the extra
spaces by searching for two spaces and replacing with one.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Thu, 5 Jan 2006 08:07:03 -0800 from Soccerman58 <Soccerman58
@discussions.microsoft.com>:
It's everywhere, by default. Two spaces. Like this. Have to go into every
paragraph and remove one of the spaces manually.
Click to expand...

Any particular reason you choose to do this the hard way rather than
use Edit >> Replace >> Replace All?
 
Hi
No, not really, other than I don't usually use Word and haven't since
FrameMaker came along. In Word's possible defense (not that it's my job to
defend it), the Word docs that I usually get come from Engineering, and they
are usually a hellacious formatting mess, so I end up trying to clean up a
doc written in a format that I know little or nothing about. But, if you're a
Frame user, it's a waste of time trying to tell someone who has used Word for
10 years that it's horrible. I'm sure they would find Frame equally horrible
and unfriendly. To each his own, I guess. I'm just glad we have these forums.
Thanks
Phil
 
Hi
Is there any way to stop this annoying business of two spaces between words?
Granted, we used to do it that way, until about the time of the Industrial
Revolution, but now we don't.
Thanks
Phil
Click to expand...
Phil, I don't believe the double-spacing (between sentences, BTW, not
between words) is a product of the software. People who learned to
type on manual machines are used to the "mono" fonts, that did not
automatically adjust or kern inter-letter spacing. Adding the extra
space after a sentence helped to set sentences apart, and the
double-spacing remains as a function of the keyboarder, not the
program.

Blessed be, for sure...
 
Eeek, red face. Yes, I meant between sentences. I looked into using find and
replace, but in my Find dialog box there is no option for finding two spaces.
In fact, there are no options to find anything at all.
 
In the "Find what" box press the spacebar twice. In the "Replace with" box,
press the spacebar once. Replace All.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Hi
Well, that will solve the problem for the inherited documents. But if I am
going to have to use Word regularly I need to set it up so that the default
is to one space between words and not two, otherwise every document I type I
will have to go back and fix. Can I do that please?
Thanks
Phil
 
If you are getting two spaces between words or sentences, it's because you
are pressing the spacebar twice. This is NOT something Word does on its own.
If you are doing this out of habit, you will just have to break yourself of
the habit. If you want Word to help you, the best you can do is have Word
mark it as wrong. In the Grammar Settings (Tools | Options | Spelling and
Grammar), you can select whether you want one or two spaces between
sentences. This has nothing to do with what you or Word produces, just what
will be marked as incorrect. Note, however, that Word will consider any
space following a period (or question mark or exclamation point) a space
between sentences.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
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