Half spacing between numbers

[LAC]

I do a lot of technical writing that includes large numbers. Scientific
writing literature says that instead of using commas to separate large
numbers one should use a "half space". Is there any character code for a half
space in Word? Using Word 2003.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

From the Special Characters tab of the Symbol dialog, you can insert a 1/4
em space, which might serve your purposes. Alternatively, in the range
beginning at U2000 (General Punctuation character subset) in the Arial
Unicode MS font, there are numerous spaces of varying widths. The
"four-per-em" (1/4 em) is 2005. The spaces also include Figure Space,
Punctuation Space, Thin Space, and Hair Space. You'll need to figure out
which of these is intended by "half space."

FWIW, although spaces are used instead of commas as thousands separators in
many languages, I am surprised that this would be a general requirement. I
suppose you could accomplish it by setting the document language to one that
uses spaces instead of commas.

 

[LAC]

Thanks Suzanne. I agree with your latter comment. The "thin space" is most
useful in tables as it makes them less busy.

My ref is the Council of Scientific Editors Scientific Style and Format, 7th
Ed
--
LAC

From the Special Characters tab of the Symbol dialog, you can insert a 1/4
em space, which might serve your purposes. Alternatively, in the range
beginning at U2000 (General Punctuation character subset) in the Arial
Unicode MS font, there are numerous spaces of varying widths. The
"four-per-em" (1/4 em) is 2005. The spaces also include Figure Space,
Punctuation Space, Thin Space, and Hair Space. You'll need to figure out
which of these is intended by "half space."

FWIW, although spaces are used instead of commas as thousands separators in
many languages, I am surprised that this would be a general requirement. I
suppose you could accomplish it by setting the document language to one that
uses spaces instead of commas.