On 1/12/02 8:36 AM, "Greg Cook" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> (This is similar to the old typewriter rule to put 2 spaces between >> sentences. You are not supposed to do so in printing -- or a word processor, >> and the grammar checker will flag extra spaces as an error.) > > What? Is this really true? I have always used two spaces between sentences > and Word grammar checker has never told me otherwise. I did learn on a > typewriter, so I type like that. This is the first time I've heard that I > shouldn't. You know, I always wondered why Word only puts one space in when > I copy/paste or drag a sentence around. Perhaps a new feature in future > word processors could be "use typewriter mode" or "use word processing > mode". Then it would automatically convert one to the other. If you have "Show Grammar as you type", or whatever that option is called, yes, it does error double-spaces in green squiggle. And quite right. Typewriters, like many people's default plain text font in email (Monaco, Courier) usually used mono-spaced fixed-width characters, with all characters, plus the space character, all the same width. Adding an extra space between sentences was an old-tech hack for giving a bit of clarity to this wadge of text. Proper publishing - books, newspapers, now word processors - have always had more elegant proportional fonts, with larger width for spaces in any case. An extra space between sentences looks bad. (I even use Verdana - proportional - for my plain text email, and your double-spaces above look bad here too!) It could even be that Word is smart enough not to grammar-error double-spaces between sentences if you use a mono-spaced font like Courier, which perhaps you do. I never thought of that - I'll go check sometime soon. -- Paul Berkowitz -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
