Don't Space Twice After a Period!

NO 2X SPACES AFTER PERIODS

Once again, this issue has come up, this time on Google +. Unless you are doing your writing on a Royal standard, an IBM Selectric, or a Linotype machine, there are some really good reasons not to do what your ninth grade typing teacher drummed into your head.


The reason your typing teacher said "Always space twice after a period" is that she learned on a mechanical machine. (even electrics are still mechanical) Mechanical typewriters give an 'M' the same space as an 'l'. In order to set off the beginning of a new sentence, it was necessary to add an extra space after a period. Otherwise, one is left with impenetrable blocks of text. (kind of like Roman inscriptions) Computers space proportionally. There is already a small bit of space that comes after a period. On computers, there's no such thing as "nothing". Even a space has a code. When repurposing a 30 page document with 2Xspaces, all of that extra space has to be accounted. It plays havoc with online, html, and pdf publications.

By the way: Don't use the space bar five times to indent and don't make columns using the space bar or the tab key. That's another left-over from the days of mechanical typing machines.

(hehehe, my celloson and his violingirl are sitting at this moment, in the family room orchestrating a composition on Finale. I just walked in and told him to be sure not to space twice after the dotted half-notes. He shot me a look that made my hair smoke.)

See my Cellodad blog post on this subject

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Not too long ago, my wife, an elementary school Principal, and I had the following conversation:

Wife: "We use those old computers for Word-Processing"

Me: "Do you know what we call 'Word-Processing in my century?"

Wife: "No, what?"

Me: "Writing"

(sound of thrown object striking the wall behind me)