Can I control the space between words?

[Warren C.]

I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem that I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last letter of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes can't tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable or esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[macropod]

Hello Warren,

Although the spacing can vary quite a bit, especially on-screen, the printed
result always clearly shows that at least one space exists (for me anyway).
Word's 'Check grammar as you type' option, under Tools|Options|Spelling &
Grammar will also highlight any anomalies on-screen. For proof-reading
purposes, you could simply turn off the paragraph justification.
Left-aligned paras will have a consistent word spacing.

Cheers

I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up and

running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem that
I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the
solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last letter

of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes can't
tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there
should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only
one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn
this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking
everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable or

esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any
light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Jezebel]

Word's idea of justification is typographic incompetence at its worst. It
fails any aesthetic test, and reduces readability. Don't use it.

I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up and

running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem that
I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the
solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last letter

of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes can't
tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there
should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only
one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn
this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking
everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable or

esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any
light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Frank Cavestani]

Go to "Format" go to Pargraph. There is a control there for spacing. Play with it until you get what you like. You can also change the spaceing between the lines on a pull down menu.

----- Warren C. wrote: ----





I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem that I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last letter of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes can't tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable or esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Larry]

Expanding on the last point, I would suggest leaving the document with
left alignment while you're working on it, and only when you're finished
and ready to print, switch to the right justification. There's no point
in typing in a document while it's justified, since that makes the text
keep moving weirdly in both directions as you're inserting new text.
Ctrl+L is left align, Ctrl+J is right justified.

Larry

 

[Warren C.]

----- Warren C. wrote: ----





I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem that I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last letter of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes can't tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable or esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks so much for the advice. It's my fault I didn't make myself clear enough - I was pretty tired and you forget to give all aspects of the problem

I never use left & right-hand full justification. I'm having this problem when I'm using regular left-hand margin justification. Sure, it'd be futile at best to expect to see the same size spaces between words if I was using full justification - they're always shifting all over the place

Back around '95 or so, I spoke to WORD Help and the rep navigated me to some arcane preferences tab and had me turn off what I can only recall as "Proportional spacing" or "proportional printing." That's all I can remember. How it relates to WORD X, I don't know, but it's exactly the same phenomenon

Hasn't anyone else noticed this??

Thanks

Warren.

 

[Jezebel]

I've been using Word a long time, and I've never seen it except a) with full
justification turned on, or b) with a corrupt font file.

----- Warren C. wrote: -----





I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up

and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem
that I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the
solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last

letter of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes
can't tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there
should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only
one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn
this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking
everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable

or esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any
light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

enough - I was pretty tired and you forget to give all aspects of the
problem.

I never use left & right-hand full justification. I'm having this problem

when I'm using regular left-hand margin justification. Sure, it'd be futile
at best to expect to see the same size spaces between words if I was using
full justification - they're always shifting all over the place.

Back around '95 or so, I spoke to WORD Help and the rep navigated me to

some arcane preferences tab and had me turn off what I can only recall as
"Proportional spacing" or "proportional printing." That's all I can
remember. How it relates to WORD X, I don't know, but it's exactly the same
phenomenon.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

What you describe might be kerning, though this is not by default in effect
for text at body text font sizes. It might also be that you are really
uncomfortable with the whole idea of proportional spacing. If that's the
case, then you need to use a monospaced font such as Courier New or Letter
Gothic.

----- Warren C. wrote: -----





I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm now just up

and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD X. I'm now having a problem
that I remember having waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the
solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words (from last

letter of a word to first letter of following word) vary so much I sometimes
can't tell if I'd got a typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there
should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces, yet there's only
one. I vaguely remember there was a menu somewhere that allowed me to turn
this proportional spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking
everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type more readable

or esthetically appealing, but how do I control it? If anyone can shed any
light on what's happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

enough - I was pretty tired and you forget to give all aspects of the
problem.

I never use left & right-hand full justification. I'm having this problem

when I'm using regular left-hand margin justification. Sure, it'd be futile
at best to expect to see the same size spaces between words if I was using
full justification - they're always shifting all over the place.

Back around '95 or so, I spoke to WORD Help and the rep navigated me to

some arcane preferences tab and had me turn off what I can only recall as
"Proportional spacing" or "proportional printing." That's all I can
remember. How it relates to WORD X, I don't know, but it's exactly the same
phenomenon.

 

[Warren C.]

Thanks, everyone

I guess I'd just better get used to it, as I don't like mono-spaced fonts

Again, thanks for the advice.

 

[K's girl]

I hope we don't have to "get used to it"! I like certain of my documents to be printed with full justification and this flaw in Word should not keep me (us) from that. For all those who replied that this user isn't used to the spacing in full justification, that misses the point. What he is describing is NOT random spaces between words, it's random spaces within words. These do not show up at all on the screen, just in the printed version. For the record, I have used Word (with full justification) for years and never had this problem until I upgraded to a new PC with a newer version of Windows. There should be a fix for this. Or, maybe Microsoft has an agenda to impose left justification on all documents.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think it's pretty clear from the examples given that this is not a
Microsoft or Word problem; it's a printer driver issue.

I hope we don't have to "get used to it"! I like certain of my documents

to be printed with full justification and this flaw in Word should not keep
me (us) from that. For all those who replied that this user isn't used to
the spacing in full justification, that misses the point. What he is
describing is NOT random spaces between words, it's random spaces within
words. These do not show up at all on the screen, just in the printed
version. For the record, I have used Word (with full justification) for
years and never had this problem until I upgraded to a new PC with a newer
version of Windows. There should be a fix for this. Or, maybe Microsoft
has an agenda to impose left justification on all documents.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I agree, some printer drivers are poor - but you can change the way that
Word justifies text from tools > options > compatibilty - do Full
justification like Word Perfect 6. This changes the way words are spaced
during justification and *may* give a preferred appearance with this driver.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Pam]

I believe it is a problem with "kerning"; look for that.

-----Original Message-----




I've been a pretty consistant user since WORD 5.0 and I'm

now just up and running on a G4 Mac (OS 10.2.8) using WORD
X. I'm now having a problem that I remember having
waaaaaaay back. So far back, that I've forgotten the
solution.

When I use the Times font, the spaces between the words

(from last letter of a word to first letter of following
word) vary so much I sometimes can't tell if I'd got a
typo, i.e. no space at all, or two spaces when there
should be one. Or, it looks like there are three spaces,
yet there's only one. I vaguely remember there was a
menu somewhere that allowed me to turn this proportional
spacing off, but I can't find it and I've been looking
everywhere.

I realise this is a "feature" designed to make type

more readable or esthetically appealing, but how do I
control it? If anyone can shed any light on what's
happening, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

I think kerning is the space between letters, maybe also words? But for this
problem on a Mac using Word X:

1. Check your Zoom settings, see if they make a difference. (usually what
causes it for me)

2. Make sure you are properly updated:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/office/vxversions.html

3. Look in Help for references to quartz smoothing, or for a checkbox in the
Preferences dialog somewhere.

DM