I just read this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html
Shared by a fellow facebook/goodreads/google+ friend
Now back in the day, when computers were a thing of the future, we were always taught two spaces after a period. Does everyone else remember this too? My current book, my new book, and my new, new book (what I have typed of it) all have two spaces after the period!
Now, I know that I didn't pay attention in high school typing class. But the one golden rule that I always remembered was, 1 space after a comma and 2 spaces after a period. Please tell me I'm not imaging this and that I did get something out of that typing class, instead of just getting yelled at by teacher for always fooling around with my best friend. Anyone else remember this???
Seems like whenever this word is mentioned - it's nothing but aggravation!
Oh, and you will happy to know that my typing has improved tremendously since Mrs. Carl's 9th grade typing class!
Well, dealing with two spaces *does* make typographers crazy. Fortunately, it's easy to put them in as you type and then take them out before the final draft goes to the publisher (or designer, if you're self-pubbing) -- just do a find/replace in Word, and have it replace every instance of two spaces with one space.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, you're not wrong about that rule, but as the article says, it came from the days of typewriters and monospaced fonts. The *real* rule as applied today should be "two spaces for monospaced fonts, one space for proportional fonts".
Hey Thanks! I guess I'm really starting to show my age! Now I'm stressing because my first book has 2 spaces after the period. Guess I will be doing a lot of finding and replacing this weekend on my 2nd book :)
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