Spaces Between Sentences

[wunner 0]

Considering some of the "big" problems some users have, this is a minor one...but one that bothers me a bit. When I run reports I prefer two spaces between sentences for readability. And for most reports I can set that under: Report Options / Miscellaneous / Narratives. But quite often I use "Note" tags for additional information about people/places/whatever, and in particular I use the Memo field of those Note tags for that additional information.

 

When my Memo field has multiple sentences, I type two spaces between sentences. But when I print the report, TMG ignores what I've typed (and what is showing in the "saved" Memo field) and prints the content of my Memo field with only one space between sentences. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

[Bob Bennett 0]

In the Meme field, either before the first paragraph or before the second, right clik and choose <carriage return>. Usually I put in two carriage returns and one <tab>. Hope this is what you are looking for.

 

 

Bob

[wunner 0]

Thanks Bob, but not quite. What you describe will separate the Memo field from the previous text (the two CRs) and indent the first sentence (the TAB). What I'm describing is the fact that when the Memo field contains multiple sentences, it prints, by default, only one space between sentences...even when I had typed in two spaces between each sentence.

 

John

[Barbara Grempler 0]

This won't answer your question but learning to type on manual typewriters and early seletronic IBMs, I understand where you're coming from wanting the two spaces between sentences. The Chicago Manual of Style now says:

 

2.12: Line spacing and word spacing

... A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends

of sentences (both in manuscript and in final, published form) and after ...

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

Yes, Barbara, but shouldn't what one puts in the memo field print exactly as entered?

[Roy_Delos_Reyes 0]

Thanks Bob, but not quite. What you describe will separate the Memo field from the previous text (the two CRs) and indent the first sentence (the TAB). What I'm describing is the fact that when the Memo field contains multiple sentences, it prints, by default, only one space between sentences...even when I had typed in two spaces between each sentence.

 

John

 

What about using two non-breaking spaces to start each sentence- would that work?

[dadempsey 0]

Yes, Barbara, but shouldn't what one puts in the memo field print exactly as entered?

 

Sure, but extra spaces aren't information, necessarily. Do you want TMG to preserve extra spaces and carriage returns at the end of a memo field? Probably not--they're artifacts of editing, but they are how the information was exactly entered. TMG is doing reasonable processing to avoid formatting problems in the future as well as reducing the space consumed in the database.

 

What isn't immediately clear from Barbara's quotation of the Chicago Manual of Style is the "why" of the style change. Most typewriters printed monospace letters, so an extra space at the end of a sentence was necessary as a visual clue that one sentence had ended and the next had begun. Now, virtually all printing occurs with proportionally spaced letters, so a single space after period is sufficient as a visual clue that a sentence has ended and another begun. In fact, some word processors will auto-correct two spaces after a period to a single space, though this behavior can usually be modified.

 

Hope this helps,

 

David

Edited October 13, 2006 by dadempsey

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

While I am fine with TMG removing the final spaces, I would prefer that it leave my spaces after a period. As you can see from this message, I add two spaces when I type and I'd just perfer them to stay there. Who knows, the spaces may have meaning such as aligning text into columns of some sort.

 

EDITED: Well it appears even the software to run this site removes the periods. Software should not think it is smarter than the user.

Edited October 13, 2006 by GenerationGoneBy

[Terry Reigel 0]

Well it appears even the software to run this site removes the periods.

Not exactly.

 

This site, like most, displays text in HTML format. HTML always ignores multiple spaces. In fact the extra spaces are still there - edit your message and you will still see then in edit mode. But they are not visible when you look at your post in normal viewing mode.

[Jim Byram 0]

When my Memo field has multiple sentences, I type two spaces between sentences. But when I print the report, TMG ignores what I've typed (and what is showing in the "saved" Memo field) and prints the content of my Memo field with only one space between sentences.

It's a bug and we're looking at it. It's not end of sentence spacing in the memo... it's any multiple-spacing within the event tag output stream. For example, put two spaces between two words in an event memo or between two words in an event tag sentence and those are converted to a single space on output.

 

This worked correctly in v6.09 and has been broken since.

 

Update. Fixed and tested. Should be in the v6.11 update.

Edited October 14, 2006 by Jim Byram

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

Thanks Jim.