On 1/12/02 10:58 AM, "Paul Berkowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 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. Ok. I was about to tell you that Word X grammar checker does not report the extra space as an error. I DO have grammar checking turned on. I looked a little more closely and in the spelling and grammar prefs, there's more options under grammar settings. There is a sentence spacing option. Mine is set to "don�t check". You can set it to either 1 or 2 spaces. As an aside, I managed to type this whole paragraph with only 1 space after sentences. It was very hard for me. I had to backtrack and delete the extra space on 90% of them in this message! Maybe I can get used to it at some point. <p> Thanks for the info. <p> Greg! -- 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/>
