Single Space after Period- how to? Please help.

[fleuron]

Hi everyone..this is my first post. I have a very simple question to ask about auto formatting single spaces after periods in a paragraph. I remember there is an automatic function for doing this but I can't find it. Again, I just want indesign to change my double spaces after my periods to just one space so I don't have to manually do it. Please help me out, thanks.

[AdobeAce]

Hi fleuron,

What you're looking for is Edit > Find/Change. Type 2 spaces in the "Find What" field and 1 space in the "Change To" field. (You won't be able to see these invisible characters in either field.) Then press the Change All button and all of your double spaces will change to single spaces instantly.

Then tell whoever is typing your text that two spaces after periods are ONLY correct for typewriters. If they don't listen, call the typography police who will confiscate their computer and replace it with a typewriter.

Oh and by the way, Welcome to the Layers Forum.

Have fun!

Ace

[fleuron]

Hi AdobeAce, thank you sooo much!!!!!

[The Repro Kid]

Hi everyone..this is my first post. I have a very simple question to ask about auto formatting single spaces after periods in a paragraph. I remember there is an automatic function for doing this but I can't find it. Again, I just want indesign to change my double spaces after my periods to just one space so I don't have to manually do it. Please help me out, thanks.
...and a truly wonderful thing to aspire to!

[eugenetyson]

Don't forget, if you're only looking to do a single space after a period, then the FIND/CHANGE should be the period followed by two spaces.

Replace it with the period and then one space.

[TORCH511]

Then tell whoever is typing your text that two spaces after periods are ONLY correct for typewriters. If they don't listen, call the typography police who will confiscate their computer and replace it with a typewriter.

Ok, I admit it, it was me and I will try to stop. Despite best efforts to stop, after following this rule for 9 years as part of Army protocol it is pretty much ingrained and automatic and a very hard rule to break. And I do not know who changed it, but I do not like the singe space after perior rule. It's one after commas and semi-colons, 2 after periods and colons.

[DCurry]

After you do the Find/Change as described by Ace, do it again, and keep repeating it until it doesn't find any more. This will make sure that any triple spaces (or more!) are also taken care of. I often have to run it 3-4 times on a supplied document.

And the reason the "rule" got changed is that we no longer use typewriters -- software is intelligent enough to make it look nice. Double spaces after a period are a mark of amateurish work.

[TORCH511]

After over 15 years of KNOWING I was doing it wrong, I am seriously trying to break myself of the habit. Give it a week or so and I think I can rid myself of this nasty habit.

[The Repro Kid]

The reason double spaces are used in typewriting is that typewriters use Monospaced Fonts, not Proportional Spaced Fonts. In a Monospaced font, a Period occupies the same space as a W. So when using a monospaced font and a single space is used after a period, sentences tend to look run together. Real typesetting has always used Proportional Spaced fonts, where each character occupies a space proportional to its actual size, so double spacing has never been necessary in real typesetting.

[eugenetyson]

After over 15 years of KNOWING I was doing it wrong, I am seriously trying to break myself of the habit. Give it a week or so and I think I can rid myself of this nasty habit.

Just rememember it like this. InDesign knows that it should be a bigger space after a period, so it puts it in automatically so you don't have to.

If you think you're still doing it, just run a find change and be done with it. It's no big deal really, just an eye-sore. :D

[The Repro Kid]

That's not how it works. Read my previous post. InDesign does nothing to the spacing of a period, it is all built into the Font.

An example of a Monospaced font is Courier from the Base 13 fonts. A true Courier font is monospaced, which is why so many programs substitute missing fonts with Courier, so you can blatantly see that something is wrong. Take a look at the spacing of the periods and commas of the Gill Sans fonts. The spacing is notoriously tight.

[eugenetyson]

That's not how it works. Read my previous post. InDesign does nothing to the spacing of a period, it is all built into the Font.

An example of a Monospaced font is Courier from the Base 13 fonts. A true Courier font is monospaced, which is why so many programs substitute missing fonts with Courier, so you can blatantly see that something is wrong. Take a look at the spacing of the periods and commas of the Gill Sans fonts. The spacing is notoriously tight.

Hmmm... you're correct, but I wasn't addressing the actual problem, just an easy way to remember that you don't need to put two spaces in. Sorry if it was a bit confusing, I do that sometimes.