When typing, do you use one or two spaces after a full stop?

Reoil

When typing, do you use one or two spaces after a full stop?
This is the future of the internet folks! :P

Pushtrak

Forums? One. MS Word? Two.

ToniTuddle

One...

Should it be two???

Oh my GOD I've been wrong all this time :eek:

The Big Red Button

One after a comma, two after a full stop.

Our school make us do typing in Transition Year ...

Bajingo

Why is it two? I always use one for MS and on boards I just use loads of full stops...like that...

A Doozer

chatterpillar wrote: »

One after a comma, two after a full stop.

Our school make us do typing in Transition Year ...

One for nearly everything. I would check with a professor for a thesis. The reason for the quote is because our school taught us to type as well. Right after teaching us the fact that America was made up of 52 states!!!! No wonder I never got the movie 51st state.

Good times.

smythwicks

whatsaspace?

Thomas828

I believe it was Pitman's school of typing who established the practice of using two spaces after a full stop. The funny thing is, it doesn't matter how many spaces you type in a Word document, if you convert it to HTML, two spaces become a single space.

cup of tea

Ineverusespacesafterfullstopsinfactidon'teverusespacesitsavestimetypingthisway

A Doozer

I'm on a mobile curled up next to my personal bed warmer so can't check. Can someone test it in word please? Do they get a green squiggly bad grammar line?

Grimebox

I've never heard such rubbish. One of course

4zn76tysfajdxp

I ..use ..two ..full ..stops ..after ..every ..space.

congo_90

I.DonT.KNoW.Wut.Prper.Typ|ng i$?

k?

Overheal

All your space are belong to us.

djk1000

My Fas instructor on the Fas course I was on insisted on 2 spaces after a full stop. He said that he'd failed people before for single spacing too many times in an exam, then again, the class ended up teaching him a lot of stuff in MS Office.

SoupyNorman

Jada Uptight Theft wrote: »

I ..use ..two ..full ..stops ..after ..every ..space.

Are you taking a Sh1t?

4zn76tysfajdxp

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Are you taking a Sh1t?

No, just talking it.

rizzee

Whatarespaces?

phasers

Wat U Tlkn Bout i Dnt Get It................................

starbelgrade

djk1000 wrote: »

My Fas instructor on the Fas course I was on insisted on 2 spaces after a full stop. He said that he'd failed people before for single spacing too many times in an exam,

And then changed most of the results to meet the required pass rate so as to get funding for the next course.

MaybeLogic

Even more ammo for the Grammar Nazis.

NothingMan

Every person who uses 2 spaces after a full stop uses on average 100 billion extra trees a week in paper.

FACT!

You are destroying our planet.

Drummerboy2

If you are sending files to the printers please only use one space. Two spaces looks terrible on printed matter.

dny123456

So the rule is... if you're using a monospaced font like courier, use double space, if you are using a proportional font, like this, use a sinle space.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_stop

Double space (English Spacing). The two spaces convention was brought about by the use of monospaced font on typewriters to approximate an em space, and carried on by tradition. However, this more closely approximates traditional typography, as even in proportional fonts an inter-word space is nearly always much narrower than an em space.

Or for more indepth reasoning and history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_spacing_at_the_end_of_sentences

Smallbit

Only one space is required if you are using most of the fonts available on word processing applications. The tradition of two spaces came about when typewriter characters were un-kerned, so that there was no automatic adjustment of the spaces between different combinations of letters. Try using the 'courier' font in Word to see an example of an un-kerned font.

The only reason spaces are inserted or adjusted is to improve readability, so that it's obvious to the reader where one sentence stops and another starts, and where comma denoted clauses apply within sentences. Adding two spaces doesn't make much difference to readability but is likely to create 'rivers' of random whitespace throughout a typed paragraph.

Using two spaces is obsolete and unnecessary. Sorry for the nerdy stuff - I used to work in desktop publishing

Alun

I know someonw who puts a space both before and after every full stop and comma. Very, strange indeed.

walshb

NowthatthegreensareinpowerIusenofullstopsitsanawfulwaste

humanji

I do some screenwriting and agents in the states won't accept a script if it's not double-spaced after the fullstops. They also make you use ****ty incorrect US spelling. :mad:

Biggins

With all those extra spaces created, don't tell the Chinese, they will move someone into them!

GavRedKing

I've been using one space for as long as I can remember. No changing now.

Mossy Monk

Two spaces after a full stop.

i_inky

Always 2

AnonoBoy

I know one is supposed to use two spaces after a full stop but I'm a rebel, a lone wolf if you will and I don't adhere to the rules of puncuation (in this particular case). I make up my own rules (in this particular case).

So if you need a man who's not afraid to go against the grain (in this particular case) then I'm your man. A true maverick who will not be tamed (in this particular case).

Liam Byrne

Thomas828 wrote: »

I believe it was Pitman's school of typing who established the practice of using two spaces after a full stop. The funny thing is, it doesn't matter how many spaces you type in a Word document, if you convert it to HTML, two spaces become a single space.

Converting a Word document to HTML =

Anyways, ALL HTML does this - even posting on boards!! For example, there are ten spaces between the words "even" and "posting" in the previous sentence, but the browser ignores them.

Kipperhell

There is no need to use two spaces now so why bother? If you insist it is the the correct way then it is just about following a rule rather than any purpose.

I worked with an Irish guy who used to put the date down in the US format (never lived anywhere else but Ireland ). Caused numerous problems and when asked why he would do this he said the reason was because he got used to it that way because of his watch. He ended up getting an official warning about it as he wouldn't stop, oddest thing was he wasn't bad at his job but that one thing was getting him in trouble and he didn't stop.

It used to be two because of the space size on a typewriter. Modern day secretarial courses will tell you to use one. I only found that out recently. I had always used two. Don't any more!

cornbb

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Who on earth uses two spaces together? It also irks me when people put a space before a question or exclamation mark ! And when people don't use 3 full stops when typing ellipsis......

Biggins

Pick up any book or novel.
One space.
I do a bit of writing, manuscript-wise, use one space with double spaces between lines (for re-editing reasons).
I can't see this fogie changing his ways.

Useful.Idiot

never ever heard of using two spaces. Sure that's mad!

electrogrimey

In Soviet Russia, something witty about space.

emeraldstar

I hate two spaces, it looks so messy.

So I choose the missing 'Proper - I use one' option.