Is there any way I can get Microsoft Word to insert two spaces after each period?

[Excalibre]

@Left Hand of Dorkness

Gah. I learned to touchtype in the seventh grade, and we were taught to put two spaces after a period. Even in this post, knowing that the two-space rule is outmoded, I’m having to work at using only one space; it just comes naturally to me to use two, and my thumb does this double-tap without my giving it permission. I hate that rule.

Daniel

Don’t worry about it. Web browsers will handle that for you, as they don’t preserve the whitespace in HTML. So extra spaces are collapsed into a single one on the web.

A lot of people still type two spaces after a period, though, as I’ve noticed when using quote boxes.

[threemae]

@InvisibleWombat

Yet another professional writer saying that you don’t put two spaces after a period. Even in the typewriter days, typesetters only used one space. The Chicago Manual of Style states clearly that there is only one space at the end of a sentence.

I think my aspring career as a writer ha been cut short. There’s no way that I can unlearn the two spaces rule now. Aaaagh.

[Walloon]

Speaking as a former book editor, I can tell you that editors do not want two spaces after each sentence. One of the first things I would do when formatting a manuscript would be to remove double spaces after sentences.

[Cockatiel]

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

And thanks to all the professionals who chipped in, too. I’m going to keep the spacing the way it is for now, but on the off chance I need to change it, I’ve got a few methods.

[ChordedZither]

@InvisibleWombat

Even in the typewriter days, typesetters only used one space.

More precisely, typesetters used variable spacing and good ones would use one space after a full stop but that space would be wider than the typical interword space.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that the more advanced and more expensive typewriters could do do proportional spacing as well, so it’s more appropriate to regard the two-space-after-a-stop rule as a sop to those with cheaper typewriters than to typewriting in general.