Re: space space

[Kelly Graham MCOM <grahamk -at- CS -dot- HH -dot- AB -dot- COM>]

LaVonna Funkhouser wrote:

> My editor yesterday told me to globally change my 2 spaces
> after each sentence to 1 space after each sentence.  The
> two-space habit is so engrained that I don't know if I
> can switch.  I also think this is a bit of personal preference.

> What do you think?  In the age of desktop publishing, have you
> switched to the single space?  (I have heard a dtp guru list
> the single space as a "rule," but I still choose to space-space.)

> If it makes a difference, I was using 11-pt Palatino.

Here's my take on LaVonna's space space poser.  Three things signal a reader
that s/he is ending one thought and beginning another:  a period, two spaces,
and a capital letter.

Well, with all the file extensions and the like, a period now signals other
things besides the end of a sentence.  With all of the abbreviations and
acronyms, a capital letter now signals more than the beginning of a sentence.
My point is that those two little spaces are all we have left to tell the
reader s/he's reached the end of one idea and is moving to another.

Many of my fellow writers (the younger ones) were taught to use only one
space after a period (and after a colon).  I won't change.  Like LaVonna, I
doubt that I could if I wanted to, and I DON'T WANT TO.

We use Interleaf, if that matters, and I've not seen any additional spacing
automatically provided by the software after a period, which is what some of
those writers in favor of the single space claim.

I don't know about the rest of the list, but I hate trying to read text where
the sentences are separated by only one space.  I get lost . . .

Kelly
grahamk -at- cs -dot- hh -dot- ab -dot- com