One or two spaces?

[JanMichael]

When this sentence ends and the next begins how many spaces should follow the period?_One.__Or two?

If you say two you are living in the dark ages:-)

[some guy]

1. ~

If
you
put
every
word
on
its
own
line
period
spacing
doesn't
matter
.

One
blank
line
after
the
period
.

:)

[DarkTirade]

2. Your MOM uses two spaces.

:P

[Pierre.Suave]

3. 3

just for the hell of it. See, it is TEH AWESOME. You know, you agree, deal with it!

[Doug.Goodall]

4. I like using two

<>

Sometimes I park in on the end of the row, but two keeps the doors from getting dinged.

[havocmom]

5. Two

I'm old-school

[last_texas_dem]

6. Two

[Orsino]

7. Two.

But that's just tradition, and gets nixed by HTML, anyway.

[Zuiderelle]

8. Two. Can't help it.

[auntAgonist]

9. Two. Guess I live in the dark ages

:)

aA

[SacredCow]

10. I still use 2 out of habit...

And probably always will.

[graywarrior]

11. One if you're typing online.

Two if you're typing on paper.

My rules.

[MorningGlow]

12. As a professional editor, I say

ONE and ONLY ONE. And if anybody argues with me, I'll find/replace yo ass so you comply. :P

[kentauros]

13. As an aspiring writer that actually learned on those ancient manual typewriters

I also say one and only one!

I am so glad I never got into that habit, and glad that html strips the extras out of online stories ;)

[MorningGlow]

14. I did learn on manual typewriters

But I managed to unlearn. And since typewriters have gone the way of the dinosaur, there's no reason to perpetuate the archaic practice.

I did have a lovely 13-round bout with a client, just recently, on the same subject. I won. :P

[kentauros]

15. You might get another 13 rounds in the Lounge, too!

:P

I found an easier way of breaking the "habit": I simply forgot to use the rule ;)

I did some editing for a friend (still do sometimes) and he uses the two-space rule as well. I did a simple "find & replace" in Word and got hell from him later. Luckily, I had saved a backup copy where I had fixed all the other mistakes first and just reverted to that for the doubly-spaced rule. I recently had to see that bit about html stripping out the extras and saw that it was indeed true for the story he had posted online. I guess so long as html does that, people don't really have to change. And I can easily replace all two-spaces with one in less than a minute in Word :)

[MorningGlow]

16. The official styles guides (for print) enforce the "one space" rule

No excuse for two spaces anymore--neither online nor in print. So I say I say I say, once again, to all those two-spacers: :P

:rofl:

[JanMichael]

18. Thank you! The troglodytes (in jest) are always in the majority.

so I appreciate the support!

Seemingly reasonable people will, at least on this issue, disregard 20 years of change. Even when it means fucking up other people's documents in a work setting (Ie. Putting those damned two spaces in someone else's one space document). It's shocking how inflexible they are. Like parochial school boys that can never adapt to reality.

[MorningGlow]

19. I think it's what's beaten into us in school

Literally, figuratively, whatever. I am always amused that everyone remembers ONE rule that their English teacher was a stickler about, and even in their twilight years, they still abide by it, as if the English teacher is going to appear behind them and stamp a big red "F" on their work documents.
:rofl:

Damn, you think the two space vs. one space is bad, try arguing for the serial comma. (Which, by the way, is now becoming the preferred style.) Talk about a deathmatch!

[DS1]

17. I was taught two in typing class, but nobody does that anymore.

right?