I had a Matrix “question everything you know” moment a few days ago. I was browsing Channel 9 and came across the following video. In it, Bill Hill says that thanks to the wonder of computers, double spaces after a period are no longer needed. Somehow I was totally oblivious to this fact! Everyone I’ve talked to about it since seemed fully aware of this issue and had an opinion on it one way or another. I, on the other hand, had no idea that I was doing it any different than everyone else in the world! However, even now that I know I’m doing it ‘wrong’ I don’t think I’ll be able to change. That double-tap on the spacebar is so ingrained into my fingers’ brains that I can’t stop doing it! There, I just did it right there without meaning to, and I was just talking about it!
I have heard about the space thing before but I have never put in the effort to try to change it because I just thought it was some persons idea and it wasn't "the new way" of doing it. I don't think I can change either. It is just a habit as you can see from this comment. I just can't stop.
Now as I am looking at the preview I see that the computer automatically changes it to one space. Computers are so smart!
The period "has me" as well. I can't shake it. I too was aware, but cannot stop if my life depends on it.
I had no idea that the computers did that. I always double space after the period. I just didn't know that computers changed it. How gay is that? I mean look at all these periods i am putting in , and I am double spacing after each one. I am even aware of it and wouldn't change if my life depended on it. It's like not wearing a seat belt to me. I just always do.
And that's a wrap.....
Me too! Maybe I can start a class action suit against someone for the cost of therapy rehabilitation of my poor thumb so it no longer hits the spacebar twice. Anyone wanna join me? I mean, talk about undue hardship!
Well clearly the person we (Scott, Dave & I) should sue is Mrs. Perry. She was the typing teacher that warped us all with that double space propaganda! Sure, I guess it was still right at the time because we learned on typewriters, but she should have had the foresight to tell us that we'd only need 1 space in the future when computers had taken over the world!
With whatever settings I have with MS Word it will delete the extra space I put in after a period if I pause after entering the two spaces that I cannot not type and this inevitably causes me to reenter the second space and continue typing; and I somehow managed to avoid the issue altogether in this post. :[
I always take the "auto-spell" correction off of MS word. Little pisses me off more than having a machine think it knows what I want more than I do. It's like sometimes I want to drag and drop only part of a word - I don't want it to automatically select the whole thing. Or like my car alarm resetting if I don't open a door after ten seconds - sometimes I just want to get in the trunk. Or like . Alright, stop choking me, Jake. I'll shut up now.