formatting/extra space in Word/sentences

[wolverine]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Hello:
I've looked everywhere and can't find an answer to: is it possible to control the amount of space between the period at the end of a sentence and the initial letter of the next sentence? I'm proofing text in someone else's document and they have four spaces consistently between those elements. I can't find the control mechanism to shorten the space to two or three spaces. The big space between "...spaces." and "The" is what it looks like. Can anyone out there tell me how to manage this, and where to look?
Thanks.
Wolverine

 

[Patty Winter]

is it possible to
control the amount of space between the period at the end of a sentence
and the initial letter of the next sentence? I'm proofing text in
someone else's document and they have four spaces consistently between
those elements. I can't find the control mechanism to shorten the space
to two or three spaces.

You can just use search and replace to search for four spaces
and replace those instances with the desired number of spaces.

BTW, in proportional text, the standard is to have only one space
between sentences, so you might consider that unless there's some
special reason you've been asked to use two or three. A lot of us
were taught to use two spaces between sentences on a typewriter,
but I've never seen anyone use more than that except occasionally
by mistake. And nowadays with personal computers being able to
emulate typesetting equipment for medium-quality jobs, there's
not even any reason to have two.


Patty

 

[Christine_Chapman]

Hi
I just tried out the Find and Replace tool to see if this would fix your problem. It worked for me. You can find this under the Edit drop down menu at the top of the screen. Choose FIND and type in a period and put in the number of spaces. Then choose REPLACE and type in a period and one or two spaces, whatever you want. Then ask it to find the occurrences and choose replace when it finds them. Give it a try.
Chris

 

[John McGhie]

Is it time to start this year's discussion about "How many spaces should
there be after a period"?

{Grin, duck, and run very fast...}

Hi
I just tried out the Find and Replace tool to see if this would fix your
problem. It worked for me. You can find this under the Edit drop down menu
at the top of the screen. Choose FIND and type in a period and put in the
number of spaces. Then choose REPLACE and type in a period and one or two
spaces, whatever you want. Then ask it to find the occurrences and choose
replace when it finds them. Give it a try.
Chris

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[wolverine]

Hello Patty, Christine, John:
The Find and Replace function worked as all of you said it would. And since no one answered my question about a control mechanism for the space between those elements, I assume there is none. But I'm sure that in previous versions of Word (for PC) there was such a setting available in the Formatting options, limited to one or two spaces.
Thank you all for your assistance.
Wolverine

 

[Patty Winter]

Is it time to start this year's discussion about "How many spaces should
there be after a period"?

{Grin, duck, and run very fast...}

I've recently edited a couple of white papers that had extra spaces
between sentences, so the topic is on my mind...


Patty

 

[Patty Winter]

Hello Patty, Christine, John:
The Find and Replace function worked as all of you said it would. And
since no one answered my question about a control mechanism for the
space between those elements, I assume there is none. But I'm sure that
in previous versions of Word (for PC) there was such a setting available
in the Formatting options, limited to one or two spaces.

Are you saying that there used to be a setting that would prevent
someone from typing more than one or two spaces between sentences?
Or at least, would immediately change more spaces back to one or two?
I'd be curious to hear what Bob and John know about that.


Patty

 

[John McGhie]

The closest you can get is to enable the Grammar checker.

If you do, you can then set "Spaces required between sentences" to 1, 2, or
'Don't check'.

Of course, in proper proportionally-spaced typesetting, there should be only
one space, but it should be an EM space.

You can make the Find/Replace you were talking about yesterday exchange
"period, one space" or "period, two spaces" to "period, em space".

Cheers

Are you saying that there used to be a setting that would prevent
someone from typing more than one or two spaces between sentences?
Or at least, would immediately change more spaces back to one or two?
I'd be curious to hear what Bob and John know about that.


Patty

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

I vaguely recall that there 'may' have been such a setting to convert 1
space to 2 or vice versa, but if so it would have to date back to Word 6 or
prior... And it didn't stick around very long if it did actually exist. What
you may be thinking of is a setting in the Grammar preferences (Options in
WinSpeak) that enables checking for a specific number of spaces.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[CyberTaz]

Heh.... "Spaces" are just like rain drops. They exist individually at what
ever size, but as soon as you mesh 2 or more together you have only one...
Which happens to be bigger than either of those which combined to form it.

For a definitive answer to the question, try -- if you can -- to think back
to when you were first taught to print sentences. Did your teacher instruct
you to put "2 spaces" between sentences, or was the instruction to create "a
space" between sentences? Even in typing classes, the instruction is not to
put 2 spaces between sentences -- it's to "press the spacebar twice".

Ask any type fitter you meet how many 'spaces' they strike between sentences
& they'll laugh you out of the building... The waters have been officially
chummed ;-)