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Subject:Re: One space or two? From:"Williams, Diane (contractor)" <Williams_Diane -at- DOTE -dot- OSD -dot- MIL> Date:Tue, 19 Aug 1997 14:40:54 -0400
>>It is my understanding that word processing systems with proportional
spacing recognize a period and allow a slightly larger following space
than between words within a sentence. <<
To my knowledge, neither Word nor WordPerfect can increase the space
after a period automatically. And if they could, how is the program to
know it's not an abbreviation? I choose for Word and WordPerfect to
delete an extra space after a full stop. If one chooses to use two
spaces, I'd like to know how the program tells the difference between
the end of a sentence and an abbreviation followed by a capitalized
word. That's one reason I whack all multiple spaces.
I think an older typsetting program, CompuGraphics maybe, used to have
the option to put an em space, or something wider than a normal word
space, after a sentence; but I know none of the programs I've used
(Atex, Hendrix and Logicon) have used such conventions. I've used thin,
en, and em spaces for other spacing requirements, such as in tables, but
not for after sentences.
~~Diane
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