TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Word Question From:Maynard Hogg <maynard -at- GOL -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 20 Feb 1997 23:04:20 +0900
Steve Shewchuk <sshewchu -at- igor -dot- UWI -dot- COM> wrote:
>Recently Word's habit to replacing double spaces with single spaces has
>begun to cause problems for me. It seems that when I'm editing paragraphs,
>Word will change double spaces into single spaces when it gets the chance
>(eg. when it adjust word-wrapping, or when I delete words beside a double
>space). Since I habitually double space after periods, this causes
>consistency problems in my document.
That's not a bug. It's a feature! You're not supposed to be using two
spaces with proportionally spaced fonts anyway. <running and ducking>
They produce rivers and other typographical horrors. That's an
American aberration introduced with the typewriter and deserves to be
retired with that relic anyway.
Of course, intelligent software would enable the double spaces when
you switched to typewriter emulating Courier or other fixed width font
and disable them when you switched back to a proportional one, but
the old Xerox Star was the only system I've ever seen with that
insight.
--
===
|\^/| Maynard Hogg
_|\| |/|_ #306, 4-30-10 Yoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 158
> < Fax: +81-3-3700-7399
>_./|\._< Internet: maynard -at- gol -dot- com
Unsolicited commercial electronic mail sent to this address will be
proofread at a cost of US$200/hour (half-hour minimum).
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html