Two Spaces Between Each Sentence??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ed Felty
  • Start date Start date
E

Ed Felty

I have a user (W97) that wants to automatically put two spaces between each
sentence. I thought about autoformat (Two spaces after each '.'), but that
would affect everything with as '.' ($1. 95 and so forth). Is there a way
to do this without screwing up anything else???


Thanks a bunch to all who answer these queries!!

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"I finally got my head together, and my body fell apart."
 
Ed Felty said:
I have a user (W97) that wants to automatically put two spaces between each
sentence. I thought about autoformat (Two spaces after each '.'), but that
would affect everything with as '.' ($1. 95 and so forth). Is there a way
to do this without screwing up anything else???
Click to expand...

Use the find & replace feature. In the Edit menu, select "Replace..."

Include a single space in the searched-for line:
replace ". " (period plus one space)
with ". " (period plus two spaces)

That is, assuming each sentence already has a single space. This will leave
"$1.95" alone.
 
In
Carl. said:
Use the find & replace feature. In the Edit menu, select "Replace..."

Include a single space in the searched-for line:
replace ". " (period plus one space)
with ". " (period plus two spaces)

That is, assuming each sentence already has a single space. This will
leave "$1.95" alone.
Click to expand...

OK...that will work on an individual document basis, but can this be set to
default for all documents created??

Thanks again for the reply!!

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it"
 
Use the find & replace feature. In the Edit menu, select "Replace..."
Include a single space in the searched-for line:
replace ". " (period plus one space)
with ". " (period plus two spaces)

That is, assuming each sentence already has a single space. This will leave
"$1.95" alone.
Click to expand...

But if there are already two spaces after a period, won't there then be three?
 
I don't know of a way to automatically put two spaces after a sentence
as you type it. But you can make the grammar checker flag the
period-one-space occurrences with a green squiggly underline (grammar
error). Works with question-mark-one-space and
exlamation-point-one-space too.

When you're done typing, go back to the beginning of the document, press
F7 to rerun the spelling/grammar checker, and Word will review each red-
and green-squiggly-underlined item in order of occurrence. If the item
is a period-one-space, it will suggest changing the one space to two
spaces, and all you have to do is click on the Change button to make it
happen.

If you want to turn this feature on in Word, click on Tools | Options |
Spelling & Grammar | Settings | Spaces required between sentences: 2.
 
Not if you do a Wildcard Edit>Replace with

..[<space>]{1,}

in the Find what control, and

..<space><space

in the Replace with control.

For each <space>, press the spacebar once.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
There is no way to do this automatically - a wildcard search as indicated by
Doug would be the obvious approach, but a better approach would be to tell
your user that this is a wordprocessor not a typewriter, and double spaces
are an unnecessary affectation with proportional fonts.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
 
In
Graham Mayor said:
There is no way to do this automatically - a wildcard search as indicated
by Doug would be the obvious approach, but a better approach would be to
tell your user that this is a wordprocessor not a typewriter, and double
spaces are an unnecessary affectation with proportional fonts.
Click to expand...
Therein is the nature of the problem...the user is 76 y/o and thinks 'word
processors' are a HUGE pain, as they are preset to do certain things that he
doesn't want them to do. Consequently, every document is a titanic struggle
to see who is going to get their way, him or the word processor. I'm a bit
younger, but I have to confess, I think 'Word' has gotten so complicated,
that it's useability degrades with each new version. I think the best
description of this sort of problem comes from one of the StarTrek movies
where Commander Scott disables the transwarp drive of the Excelsior by
removing a few small parts. When asked about it, he said, "The more they
high-tech the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." This can be
easily seen if one tries to do any outlining with Word.

IMHO...

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?"
 
In
Graham Mayor said:
Perhaps the user would be happier with WordPad ;)


With all due respect...that is not a solution. I view word processing as a
Click to expand...
tool that shoul be easily adjustable to fit different projects. I don't
expect it to be a 'jack-of-all-trades' tool, but one that will work. If Word
were a wrench in my toolbox, I would have long ago tossed it. I guess I need
to start looking at alternatives like Open Office to see if they are more
cooperative.

Thanks anyway for your responses all,

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell
happened."
 
Ed,

If OpenOffice is viable alternative solution, then why disparage Graham's
suggestion to consider WordPad? If the older gentleman is frustrated by
Word and his intended use is within the capability of WordPad he may be
quite satisfied.
 
The response about Wordpad was tongue in cheek as witnessed by the smiley
character, however, any powerful word processor is going to require some
effort to get the best from it and this would apply equally to Open Office,
Word Perfect or whatever. If the user is not prepared to put the effort in
to discover how the application works (and age is not an excuse - he's old
not stupid) then you can hardly blame the product if it doesn't do what he
wants.

The automatic formatting options can be turned off which allows the user to
take full control of the application.

The fact remains that with proportional fonts double spaces are
unnecessary - but if you insist you can have them. It just means a little
more work.


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
 
In
Greg Maxey said:
Ed,

If OpenOffice is viable alternative solution, then why disparage Graham's
suggestion to consider WordPad? If the older gentleman is frustrated by
Word and his intended use is within the capability of WordPad he may be
quite satisfied.
Click to expand...
Again...with all due respect, there was no intent to disparage. That being
said, at our small Church the users are 76, 58, 57 and 46 (I'm the 57) and
we frequently bewail the useability problems of Word. I recently took a
simple college class that required outlining. I found out that this was as
'issue' with Word. I found the FAQ to set up Word to outline properly. It
worked twice and then I had to reset up the whole thing again. I just don't
like to fight the program to get the job done and as I mentioned earlier, it
gets worse with each new version. We have to be able to work with other
people in the Church and other organisations, and Word is the dominant
method. So, the only option is to continue battling Styles to make the darn
thing do what I want it to. Frustrating...YES!!! But what can we do??? It's
a situation with no reasonable solution, IMHO.

Again, thanks to all who replied. You folks are the best and have helped me
many times in the past.

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they
go flying by..."
 
In
Graham Mayor said:
The response about Wordpad was tongue in cheek as witnessed by the smiley
character, however, any powerful word processor is going to require some
effort to get the best from it and this would apply equally to Open
Office, Word Perfect or whatever. If the user is not prepared to put the
effort in to discover how the application works (and age is not an excuse
- he's old not stupid) then you can hardly blame the product if it
doesn't do what he wants.

The automatic formatting options can be turned off which allows the user
to take full control of the application.

The fact remains that with proportional fonts double spaces are
unnecessary - but if you insist you can have them. It just means a little
more work.
Click to expand...
Well, I read these groups regularly and have watched various discussions
about how to subdue 'Styles', including a recent discussion about a Style
that was no style, but are you saying that ALL autoformating and Styles can
be turned off?? How would one go about doing this??We're just regular guys
trying to grow a small Church and not computer wizards.

Thanks again...

Eddie in Colorado Springs

"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food."
 
I love beating a dead horse...

To follow the analogy, NotePad is a "box wrench", WordPad is an
"adjustable wrench", and Word, WordPerfect, and OpenOffice are
variations on the combination laser-guided mitre saw/scroll
saw/planer/router. The latter is far more flexible and capable for
complicated jobs, but if you don't understand how to use it you can
easily lose a few fingers. <g>
 
But hardly what you would use to remove a nut <g> - at least not if you
valued your laser-guided mitre saw/scroll saw/planer/router.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
Ed said:
I have a user (W97) that wants to automatically put two
spaces between each sentence.
Click to expand...

You're venting your anger in the wrong direction (And
don't think for one minute that I'm an apologist for
Word.) That your user thinks that he needs to alter
the spacing against the wishes of the font designer
means that he's chosen an inappropriate font. A font
that's too stern & official for what he wants to say.

If he were to choose a general purpose font like
palatino (otherwise known as Book Antiqua), he'd find
that his compositions more approachable and friendly.
 
You can set the grammar checker to give green lines when there is only one
space.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
Back
Top