One space or two?

[Beachclubmum]

I cannot give up the double space after a period. It's so ingrained, dating back to that typing class I took in 1975 as a 7th grader. Will this always brand me into the older generation who can't learn new tricks? Anyone else standing with me on this one?

 

[spirits]

I cannot give up the double space after a period. It's so ingrained, dating back to that typing class I took in 1975 as a 7th grader. Will this always brand me into the older generation who can't learn new tricks? Anyone else standing with me on this one?

I am one that still uses two spaces after a period. And yes I took typing in high school. In the end....it is not a big deal. I just typed one space here and it does not look too bad. I think I will just concentrate on whether to have chicken or beef for dinner tonight (;

 

[VacationForever]

Double space for me all the way.

 

[DaveNV]

I never took typing, but I always do two spaces after a period.

Dave

 

[Sandi Bo]

Guilty. I do go back and delete one of them (usually). But invariably type two.

 

[Sea Six]

Looks like you can!

 

[Sea Six]

Seriously, are you typing two but the bulletin system changes it to one?
Test. Test. Test.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Don't forget to always use two spaces after using the two letter abbreviation for the state before keying in your zip code when addressing an envelope. Supposedly this is the official way to address an envelope (at least that is what everyone was led to believe).



.

 

[Talent312]

I was taught 2 spaces as well, but I've stopped doing that.
But it's time to enter the 21st century and stop wasting space.
.

 

[kwelty]

From "The Atlantic"
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/two-spaces-after-a-period/559304/

"In the Skidmore study, among people who write with two spaces after periods—“two-spacers”—there was an increase in reading speed of 3 percent when reading text with two spaces following periods, as compared to one."

 

[dayooper]

From "The Atlantic"
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/two-spaces-after-a-period/559304/

"In the Skidmore study, among people who write with two spaces after periods—“two-spacers”—there was an increase in reading speed of 3 percent when reading text with two spaces following periods, as compared to one."

No way.How could a tiny little thing like a space make it easier to read.Ridiculous.This is scheme concocted by angry English teachers to bring back their beloved two spaces.Its like spaces after commas,capitalizing place names and apostrophes in contractions.It doesnt make sense.Theyre just trying to make us be like them.We shouldnt stand for it

 

[Patri]

I gave up the two spaces long ago. An old dog can learn new tricks.

 

[bizaro86]

Two spacing originally came to be because of typewriters, which had to give the same amount of space to every letter. Modern word processing isn't under such an impediment, and so the space between letters is set to equal in most modern fonts (so the letter 'M' gets more space than the letter 'I'). In this arrangement, the second space after a period isn't as important, because your can more easily differentiate the end of words and sentences.

This study seems hardly definitive to me, with two big issues. The first is that the group that saw improvement were people who had been taught double spacing. So they have a pre-disposition to it. Ideally, the study would include both groups of people.

Secondly, the study used a monospaced font, the same as a typewriter. That is effectively imposing the weaknesses of a typewriter on modern typography. If you impose the weaknesses of the past on the present, you will generally find the solutions of the past to be effective.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I gave up the two spaces long ago. An old dog can learn new tricks.

This old dog can certainly learn new tricks, but has no inclination to do so in this case!!!

My father encouraged me to take typing in grade 9 to learn to type with two hands, so I could more easily prepare and type my own essays. This was in the days of manual typewriters, long before electric typewriters or even word processors. That advice was bang on and saved me both time and money throughout high school and university. And then when computer keyboards came along I had a great advantage. I am touch typing this now on our home computer far faster than most "finger punchers".

And like the others here, two spaces after a period was drummed into me while learning typing and I still do it today!!

 

[Rolltydr]

I cannot give up the double space after a period. It's so ingrained, dating back to that typing class I took in 1975 as a 7th grader. Will this always brand me into the older generation who can't learn new tricks? Anyone else standing with me on this one?

It took me a long time to even consider using just one space and I still go back and forth with it. I can see that it is no longer necessary, but many times, depending on the document, it still looks so much better with two. So, I’m with you sometimes, but you can’t really count on me!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Don't forget to always use two spaces after using the two letter abbreviation for the state before keying in your zip code when addressing an envelope. Supposedly this is the official way to address an envelope (at least that is what everyone was led to believe).

Yup. Applies in Canada, too. Canada Post specifies two spaces between the two letters for the province and the postal code, although only one space separating the two 3-character parts of the 6-character postal code.

 

[EZ-ED]

Sounds like a BOOMER issue to me.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Sounds like a BOOMER issue to me.

Definitely...early baby boomer here!!

But at least we know how to properly spell, form sentences and paragraphs and, of course, double-space!!! LOL.

 

[geist1223]

Definitely...early baby boomer here!!

But at least we know how to properly spell, form sentences and paragraphs and, of course, double-space!!! LOL.

Ahh but can you diagram a sentence. Non-Boomers have a hard time reading cursive.

 

[Talent312]

It's time to dispose of those old VHS tape players, too.
.

 

[Makai Guy]

I blame this on the internet. You hardly ever see two spaces after a sentence online.

HTML (HyperTest Markup Language) in which web pages are written truncates all multiple spaces into single spaces for display, consequently on web pages you normally see only single spaces following a period. An exception is for text designated as "pre-formattted", which is displayed in a monospaced font (all characters the same width) and which does not concatenate multiple spaces into one.

Examples with five spaces typed between words each time:

Normal text

Preformatted     text

The way to enter preformatted text here on TUGBBS is to place [pre] and [/pre] tags around your text.

Preformatting is handy for displaying tabular data where you want the columns to line up correctly.

 

[WVBaker]

Definitely...early baby boomer here!!

But at least we know how to properly spell, form sentences and paragraphs and, of course, double-space!!! LOL.

Bazinga !

 

[CanuckTravlr]

It's time to dispose of those old VHS tape players, too.
.

Do I have to??? I think I still have a travel case of VHS tapes somewhere in the basement, with an actual VHS player, too!! LOL.

 

[jbeachlvr]

I’m sticking with 2 spaces until my boss writes in my review that I’m unwilling to change/move into the 21st century. 5 years to go! Haha!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[controller1]

I took typing as a freshman in high school in 1971. It was two spaces then and for me it is still two spaces simply because that's what I've been doing for almost 50 years. It just seems to be automatic for me.

 

[DaveNV]

I blame this on the internet. You hardly ever see two spaces after a sentence online.

HTML (HyperTest Markup Language) in which web pages are written

Um. I think that should be HyperTEXT.


Dave, smirking, and picking nits.