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: To Space or not to Space From:Lucy Connor <lconnor -at- asmr -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 4 May 2004 06:59:06 -0400
Yeah, I can back that up. "The typewriter tradition of separating sentences
with two word spaces after a period has no place in typesetting. The custom
began because the characters of monospaces typefaces used on typewriters
were so wide and so open that a single word space--one the same width as a
character, including the period--was not wide enough to create a sufficient
space between sentences. Proportionally spaced fonts, though, contain word
spaces specifically designed to play the sentence-separating role perfectly.
Because of this, a double word space at the end of a sentence creates an
obvious hole in the line." The Complete Manual of Typography by James
Felici, pg 80.
(Please, no one write back that I still use two spaces! It's an old habit I
can't kill!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Zorn [mailto:klzorn -at- zorntech -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 7:50 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: To Space or not to Space
>Now, I see in the "Style Guide" at my work, it says to "always place
two spaces after >a period." I am now confused (which is not hard to
do). Which is it? Two spaces or >one? Does it really matter?
In the days of typewriters and monospaced fonts, two spaces separated
the ending punctuation from the next sentence. These days of DTP and WP
software, usually using proportional fonts, the two spaces are not
necessary. In fact, some software allows the user to avoid them.
But if the style guide says two spaces, and you have strict style guide
compliance officers, then use them.
SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
>From a single set of Word documents, create quality printed documentation,
HTML Help, cross-platform HTML, WinHelp and JavaHelp, with ComponentOne's
DoctoHelp 7 Professional, http://www.componentone.com/doctohelp
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
