# Discourse is inserting a space between later-quoted italicized words and punctuation **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [July 29, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716 "2020-07-29T14:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/1 "2020-07-29T14:25:18Z")
I’ve noticed that, when I mention a book like _The Great Gatsby_ or a movie like _Breaker Morant_, and when I or anyone else later quotes that passage, the system inserts a space after the last italicized word and any punctuation immediately after it. Whyfor do it do dat? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/2 "2020-07-29T14:57:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve noticed that, when I mention a book like _The Great Gatsby_ or a movie like _Breaker Morant_ , and when I or anyone else later quotes that passage, the system inserts a space after the last italicized word and any punctuation immediately after it. Original version, the extra space shows in the quote. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve noticed that, when I mention a book like _The Great Gatsby_ or a movie like _Breaker Morant_, and when I or anyone else later quotes that passage, the system inserts a space after the last italicized word and any punctuation immediately after it. I can remove that space without a problem though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/3 "2020-07-29T14:58:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > > I’ve noticed that, when I mention a book like _The Great Gatsby_ or a movie like _Breaker Morant_, and when I or anyone else later quotes that passage, the system inserts a space after the last italicized word and any punctuation immediately after it. > > hmmmm Hmm indeed. It didn’t just now, in this thread, but it did in the Botticelli thread just a few minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/4 "2020-07-29T15:01:39Z")
See my final post above. It happens here. It can be removed. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/5 "2020-07-29T15:14:06Z")
Of course it can be removed. I would rather it didn’t have to be. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/6 "2020-07-30T05:59:14Z")
Does it also happen with bold text and any other formatted text? Could be something to do with copying and pasting. ETA one can argue that punctuation immediately following italicized text should also be italicized. That may also avoid some copy/paste issues and italic correction weirdness. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/7 "2020-07-30T13:10:06Z")
Well, let me do a test. I really like _The Great Gatsby_. **DPRK** is a helluva Doper When I last read _The Great Gatsby_, it was for my book club. If I ever meet **DPRK** , I will buy that Doper a beer. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/8 "2020-07-30T13:11:01Z")
It did not put a space in after the book title or bold-faced text in any of these four examples. ETA: I specifically quoted my previous post, but since it was immediately after that post, it did not show a quote box. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/9 "2020-07-30T13:12:23Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Well, let me do a test. > > I really like _The Great Gatsby_. > **DPRK** is a helluva Doper > When I last read _The Great Gatsby_, it was for my book club. > If I ever meet **DPRK** , I will buy that Doper a beer. Still no space inserted. It is a puzzlement. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/10 "2020-07-30T14:01:36Z")
See posts 29 and 30 here, in the references to _The Sting 2_. The quote of my post introduced a space between the movie title and the question mark: [Botticelli -- Aug 2020 - #29 by Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botticelli-aug-2020/916645/29) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/11 "2020-07-31T17:58:13Z")
And see posts 93 and 100 here, in the references to _Bad Times at the El Royale._ Happened again: [Perry Mason on HBO](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perry-mason-on-hbo/911306) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/12 "2020-07-31T20:21:48Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I really like _The Great Gatsby_ . > **DPRK** is a helluva Doper > When I last read _The Great Gatsby_ , it was for my book club. > If I ever meet **DPRK** , I will buy that Doper a beer. I selected your formatted text with the mouse and hit the grey Quote button to stick it in this reply. As you can see, spaces now appear where there were none before. I got identical results using Copy and Paste. I’m calling this definitely buggy behaviour, because the text was already rendered a certain way, so why should it change when it’s copied? Seems doubly flaky if it inconsistently failed to put in spaces when you quoted your own post. A wild guess is that the funny business happens when text on your screen that you select and paste is run by Discourse through an HTML parser. Test: here is a sentence copied/pasted from Wikipedia: > Various events in Fitzgerald’s youth are reflected throughout _The Great Gatsby_ . Note the space that wasn’t there originally. I’ll leave it up to you all to file the bug report… 🙂 _foo_bar → _foo_ bar so it’s not just before punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discourse-is-inserting-a-space-between-later-quoted-italicized-words-and-punctuation/916716/13 "2020-07-31T21:07:24Z")
I might be the code used to format the highlights is inserting the space as a coding trick to simplify parsing and then forgetting to remove it. I’ve seen that happen in a variety of environments over the years.