Still, I do have to fight to stay loose. id Summary Owner Type Status Priority Milestone 66 HTML Tidy for XHTML processing New Feature confirmed Normal 101 IE: Can't use the Styles combo with TR, TD, TH Bug closed Normal 167 Improving IsDirty after switching modes and undo Bug confirmed Normal 171 Unable to set textfield char width to 20 Martin Kou Bug review_failed Low 228 Clean HTML function (separate from Clean From Word … It’s kind of cute! All space needs to be filled with something. a brief description or teaser about your story). (I just caught myself doing it again…) Although I’ve written many short stories and articles this is my first novel. 1) I didn’t read all the comments but many. Without the first computer, though, we will not be where we are. Most people I know did as well. As a former slush pile reader, we were ordered to reject any story out of hand that did not match the formatting requirements. After spending too many years under the influence of the texting world the distinction between 1 or 2 spaces disappears in the smoke screen of no caps or punctuation at all. It goes against the principles of proper typography. If anything, proportionally-spaced fonts have made it *HARDER* to see the breaks between sentences, than it was in monospaced-font days. That’s interesting, this differs from Shunn’s suggestion. However, her article does align with what the typographic community thinks, which is that double spaces after periods are not recommended. Whether that page is front or back doesn’t matter. Also, a serif font is easier to read, instead I increasingly see non-serif fonts used for text. We know why the rule was adjusted but we don’t care. We did things differently then. If one writes very clearly the punctuation isn’t needed to understand the meaning. Ha!! You should be able to save your manuscript in MS-Word format by following the directions in this article. Languages, grammar, styles, and protocols change rather quickly in the larger scheme of things. Typewriters require 2 spaces. I think that’s why we continue to use a capital letter at the beginning of sentences, no? I am not here to argue typography. I want it to be right! Readers are too impatient, We have to grab them and keep them. So, now all of a sudden, it’s old-fashioned to double space. If you double space without thinking, as I often do, Open Office’s auto correct changes it to single space. I’m confused about paragraphs. It is the ability to suspend a note for the appropriate length of time which gives a finely executed piece it distinction. First, I believe that typeface and font design is completely subjective, and up to the designer and user of it. I assumed that anyone who used two spaces did it only because they didn’t know better, but now I see that this is not the case. So do we underline or italicize all italicized words? I’m over 40. Should I format it so that each page is separated by a page break, essentially the way it would look as a published book? Seriously. I’ve always just assumed that it was a matter of preference. Aha. http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324 Also, this is generally a myth that is perpetuated by the early 20’s journalist students. If you don’t have an agent, can you put your information in the top left, as this article stated? A PhD student who needed a dissertation came up with this dumbass idea and convinced a few people to go along trying for a seat at the cool kids table. I have never heard of leaving two spaces after a full stop, and I would never dream of doing any such thing. Here there is a form to fill. Manuscript formatting used to require underlining in the manuscript for words you wanted italicised/italicized in the published work. I can and I do. Well I’m over 60, so there will always be two spaces after a period. All your ranting just shows that you are the one behind the times. In old English, such as those written in the 17th and 18th century, I’ve noticed that sentences were typically written longer than we write them today. Zero. “It was a very large no. (My pet peeve is: a long wayS. Typing two spaces after a period is simply the exercise of the existing rules when using a typewriter. Double-spacing sentences just simply makes more sense. So you can keep up your ridiculous second space, and time, technology and common sense will get rid of it for you. So, then they become 2-space Nazis, trying to bully their opinion on everyone else in the world. I do! One thought that occurred to me each time “readability” has been mentioned, is that so many of our local television people are unable make appropriate breaks as they are reading from a prompter. People who write manuscripts, scripts, advertising copy, plays and screenplays use two spaces at the end of a sentence because their work is meant to be read. Bad typography causes strain on the eyes and so the reader will stop reading faster, get a headache or abandon the book. Thank you for being so simultaneously enlightening AND hilarious! I read that I should use three asterisks, centered from the left. That’s totally counterintuitive to your “old people” logic! Still, I would prefer not to read a whole book set in Baskerville. Or two? They grew up with certain technologies with their very specific set of restrictions and so these people created certain routines to work with those restrictions or perhaps work around them. Wrong: You always poo-poo new ideas. I used typewriters every day and never once heard of this. This is offensive. I don’t like it, and I won’t inflict it on others. On the other hand my story can’t be told without Jack’s expertise as well. 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