Vladd67
Stake Holder
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2007
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Microsoft Word now flags double spaces as errors – The Passive Voice
www.thepassivevoice.com
Personally, from an aesthetics viewpoint, I prefer:
* Double spaces at the end of a sentence.
* Indented first lines of a paragraph.
* A blank line between paragraphs.
* Sans-serif fonts.
I had someone recently demand end of sentence double spaces on a submission. I refused because of her general prima-donna attitude. I was told by a friend that is was a hangover from typewriter days with their uniform letter spacing. With modern kerning it is unnecessary. If you like it fine thoughPersonally, from an aesthetics viewpoint, I prefer:
* Double spaces at the end of a sentence.
* Indented first lines of a paragraph.
* A blank line between paragraphs.
* Sans-serif fonts.
etc..
K2
So just a ton of space?
I had someone recently demand end of sentence double spaces on a submission. I refused because of her general prima-donna attitude. I was told by a friend that is was a hangover from typewriter days with their uniform letter spacing. With modern kerning it is unnecessary. If you like it fine though
One of my favourite things about ereaders is the customisation of text to suit your own preferences. You do you, K2.
It is easy to change from one to another with "find and replace" if necessary for a publisher's requirements -- I've been doing it for the last 16 months or so. Though it's necessary to remember not only all the full stops at the end of sentences, but also all the quotation, exclamation and question marks, so even in a short story it takes a few minutes to get it done.
That's what I do.Why not just find/replace two spaces with one, and ignore previous punctuation? When would you need to keep a double space?
Well, that's saved me a few minutes a month for the rest of the year!
Funnily enough my very first thread start, when I joined here in January, was on that issue.And while I'm on a roll, I'd like to rant about double vs single quotation marks. I've read a number of opinions on which should be used when, but found myself well confused. Some publishers seem to want double, some single, some don't care either way. So, I use double quotation marks for everything I write (unless it's a quote within a quote, when I may use singles). This means I can easily use Find and Replace to turn them all into singles (I use straight quotes, not smart quotes, too) if the publisher requires. That's easy, but have you ever tried it for turning singles into doubles? Nightmare! The Find and Replace function tries to turn every single apostraphe into double quotes. There's probably a way around that, but I haven't found it yet.
Double spacing after sentences, I can handle. This particular publisher wanted single, and a find and replace in MS Word quickly sorted that, but it's the writers who randomly put double, triple and even quadruple spaces between words, never mind sentences! Have you any idea how hard it becomes to spot these after the first page? I was seeing double and had a bad headache. I don't know how @TheDustyZebra copes...
That's easy, but have you ever tried it for turning singles into doubles? Nightmare! The Find and Replace function tries to turn every single apostraphe into double quotes. There's probably a way around that, but I haven't found it yet.
Funnily enough my very first thread start, when I joined here in January, was on that issue.
A thought on quotation marks
I just received a request to reformat one of my manuscripts for UK single speech marks. This is relatively easy to do as a 'select all' replace in word because I always write using the US double quotes and I recommend you do the same. With the exception of rare quotes within quotes it is a...www.sffchronicles.com
I'm in the UK and the standard for published works here is the single quote, and I don't mind it when I'm reading exactly but I definitely prefer the double quote for the reason belowAnd while I'm on a roll, I'd like to rant about double vs single quotation marks. I've read a number of opinions on which should be used when, but found myself well confused. Some publishers seem to want double, some single, some don't care either way. So, I use double quotation marks for everything I write (unless it's a quote within a quote, when I may use singles). This means I can easily use Find and Replace to turn them all into singles (I use straight quotes, not smart quotes, too) if the publisher requires. That's easy, but have you ever tried it for turning singles into doubles? Nightmare! The Find and Replace function tries to turn every single apostraphe into double quotes. There's probably a way around that, but I haven't found it yet.
Just be careful not to do that in reverse or you'll end up with double spacing between every word...I never thought of that! For some reason I just assumed it would only work if the box had something physically typed in there. Well, that's saved me a few minutes a month for the rest of the year!
Ditto, which is weird. Normally I'm all for UK over US English, but in this case I prefer the double quote because of the apostrophes (especially in cases of quotes that end in blahblah's because it looks so messed up with the 's' like that.The really perverse thing is that whilst UK publishers have this thing for the single-quote, I was taught at school to use double-quote. My head automatically sorts it out when reading, but I really can't switch to typing them.
That said, what idiot designed the apostrophe to look exactly like a stray single-quote?
The really perverse thing is that whilst UK publishers have this thing for the single-quote, I was taught at school to use double-quote.
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