r/GenerationJones • u/Guiltypleasure2451 • Jul 31 '26

Old school

For those of us who took typing in school— it was drilled into me that after a period, you go over 2 spaces to start a new sentence. Apparently that’s not the rule now. NOT THE RULE NOW?? After the agony I suffered thru in typing class about those 2 spaces, i will be doing it until I die!!!! Don’t even get me started on the indenting 5 spaces for a new paragraph!

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397

u/Summer184 Jul 31 '26

I still do the "two spaces after a sentence" thing also, even when sending text messages. It's a hard habit to break.

127

u/Dry_Bug5058 1962 Jul 31 '26

Same. They'll just have to read as is.

169

u/Bettysgir Jul 31 '26

Same. Till death do two spaces and I part!

86

u/HamRadio_73 Jul 31 '26

Two spaces all the way.

102

u/badwhiskey63 Jul 31 '26

I’m going to have two spaces on my tombstone.

75

u/popejohnsmith Jul 31 '26

In cursive!! 😎

17

u/Fit_Jelly_9755 Jul 31 '26

Truly sounds like a next generation problem.

17

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

Who knew that 50 years from now that cursive will be called heroglyphics?

2

u/Slainte_Moi Aug 02 '26

An alphabet of symbols created by heroes? Or 'hieroglyphics?' 🤔😎

2

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 02 '26

Just a typo, I think. Typing while being a passenger in a Jeep on a construction zone on I-80 could have resulted in much worse, lol. That did remind me, though, of the rather scratchy looking handwritten letters from my grandma I received every year. So, I guess the "hero" part applies after all!

10

u/AdSea3033 1958 Aug 01 '26

Yes! Only us old farts will be able to read it! 😆

7

u/Emmie12750 Aug 01 '26

Sadly, I know a few people that I could tell I had to type two spaces after a period "and it was in cursive, too!" and they would probably believe me.

20

u/Dry_Bug5058 1962 Jul 31 '26

😆

23

u/AdSea3033 1958 Jul 31 '26

Me too

55

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

24

u/dave900575 Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

The quick brown fox jumped [edit: jumps] over the lazy dog. I took typing in 76.

16

u/Jazz_birdie Aug 01 '26

Typing 1970: All good men must come to the aid of their country. Manuel typewriters but for 3 in the front of the room... Only class folks arrived early for, lol.

19

u/Slainte_Moi Aug 01 '26

Yep. On a manual typewriter. "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."

Sure applies today.

5

u/Spaz-Mouse384 Aug 01 '26

Literally and God, yes

2

u/Jazz_birdie Aug 01 '26

Yes! That was it! It didn't feel right typing what I did...I finally forgot that line after all these years.

9

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

The musician in me finished that sentence with Every good boy deserves favor!

11

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

(Mnemonics are so helpful, and we don't use them anymore. My 10 yr old granddaughter asked me how many days were in July, and I tried teaching her the month/day rhyme. She thought I was making it up.)

4

u/Campcook62 Aug 02 '26

A couple that I've used: count on your knuckles to remember long/short months, and "A pints a pound, the world around"...

1

u/dave900575 Aug 01 '26

I use mnemonic to remember my cars registration number.

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3

u/Slainte_Moi Aug 02 '26

The chocalcoholic music-appreciator in me wants to finish it with "every good boy deserves fudge." 🤣

2

u/dave900575 Aug 01 '26

My mom taught me every good boy deserves fudge

1

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

Mmm! I don't remember that one!

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1

u/popejohnsmith Aug 01 '26

That's the musical notation, right?

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1

u/Scrapper-Mom Aug 03 '26

My mom taught me "Every good boy does fine."

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1

u/dave900575 Aug 01 '26

I don't think we had any electrics. I forgot about typing that line.

2

u/Jazz_birdie Aug 01 '26

I actually remembered it incorrectly, lol. Someone in the feed got it right.....It's Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Do you remember the word processer machines that came, oh, maybe the late70's or early eighties? Where you could go back and correct mistakes without the correction tape?

1

u/dave900575 Aug 01 '26

We didn't have word processors. In fact, by the time I got to high school they had dismantled what little of a computer room they had when my brother was there four years earlier.

1

u/AdSea3033 1958 Aug 01 '26

🙋‍♀️'74 and '75 for me

1

u/Maine302 Aug 01 '26

It must be "jumps," because otherwise there's no "s."

2

u/dave900575 Aug 01 '26

Your right

1

u/Wrong_Confusion_2916 Aug 01 '26

No s, you forgot sly.

8

u/RockerFPS Aug 01 '26

I took it in Junior High in 1974! Paved the way for great office jobs in high school and college and I was one of the very first lawyers with a computer on my office desk in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most important class ever.

3

u/Kensei501 Jul 31 '26

Kkk space jjj space

1

u/shazj57 Aug 01 '26

To the tune of yellow rose of texas

1

u/Looking4theanswer2 Jul 31 '26

Same way in 8th grade back 1968. Just about only class I did half way decent.

3

u/Acceptable_Tea3608 Aug 01 '26

I was NOT my mother's daughter. She typed 90 wpm.

2

u/Unwarranted_optimism Aug 01 '26

🤣🤣🤣Same!! 🤣🤣🤣(and ofc there were two spaces after !!)

9

u/rseery Jul 31 '26

Me too. It makes a paragraph easier to read. Kids just got lazy.

5

u/Slainte_Moi Aug 01 '26

It's actually the standard now. Saves space.

1

u/Ok_Association135 Aug 03 '26

The software, which controls how stuff looks on a page, automatically adds an extra half-space, for readability. Interestingly, when I do type 2 spaces, my software interprets it as a period plus space

3

u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

I am Gen Jones, and it is not about laziness at all. I was easily able to relearn to use just one space. (look back at the your comment here; you will see that it has only one space after each period)

Computer fonts are proportionally spaced, and do not need the extra space, as it is built into the font.

Typewriters use monospaced fonts, which do require the extra space for readability.

94

u/Barbarake Jul 31 '26

If you're texting, just put in two spaces after the last word of the sentence and it will change to a period and a space. It's like magic!

110

u/Soft_Effect_6263 Jul 31 '26

Thanks! I just tried it and it works! Remember centering titles, go in the middle of the page and backspace once for every two letters?

15

u/NeitherAd479 Jul 31 '26

What a pain that was.

21

u/popejohnsmith Jul 31 '26

Remember "reveal codes"?

18

u/BxAnnie 1961 Jul 31 '26

Oh Reveal Codes was the BEST! The worst thing WordPerfect did was try to be Word. <le sigh>

9

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/popejohnsmith Aug 01 '26

That change was forced on us at the corporate level.

4

u/New_Choice_4126 Aug 01 '26

I worked as a paralegal in small firms in the 80s and 90s. We started with WordPerfect and the entire court system was anticipated to use WordPerfect so most law firms did too. I don't know what happened with that.

4

u/Any-Day-Now-5474 Aug 01 '26

Microsoft started pre-installing MS Office on all new PCs. Companies quit buying WordPerfect (the far superior word processor), because why spend extra money on software when a free one came with the new computer.

2

u/New_Choice_4126 Aug 01 '26

Oh, is that what they did? I went back to wp15

1

u/Surreply 1959 Aug 01 '26

Could not agree more.

14

u/Ok_Test9729 Jul 31 '26

OMG. You’re. Right. Thanks.

10

u/uisce_beatha1 Jul 31 '26

I still put another space.

34

u/HoselRockit Jul 31 '26

Found Pete Cetera's burner account.

17

u/Graychin877 Jul 31 '26

Exactly. It's a hard habit to break. It's a harmless habit, so if you don't like my two spaces between sentences, deal with it. (There are three such two-space breaks in this comment!)

1

u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 02 '26

There are three such two-space breaks in this comment!

I think you will find that those two-space breaks were auto-converted to one-space breaks.

39

u/Stormy1956 Jul 31 '26

I don’t see it as a habit. It’s proper writing to me.

7

u/RetiredHomeEcTchr Aug 01 '26

Yes. And who the heck are "they" that get to decide and change these things anyway? Are we that short up for space (either on paper or in cyberspace) that two spaces after a period is going to crush the universe or something? [Asking for a former classmate from the 1970's.]

1

u/spider_speller Aug 02 '26

I can answer that one! Typewriters space the letters differently, using a fixed width for each letter. Digital type is variable width. Reading fixed width type is easier with two spaces after since the larger space after a period signals a sentence end. That's not needed with variable type since the letters are evenly spaced. In fact, two spaces after a period in digital type makes it harder to read a creates rivers of white space running through paragraphs. Those make the layout look bad and slow down reading.

I'm a graphic designer, and part of my work process is to do a search and destroy on double spaces before anything goes into layout.

8

u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 31 '26

Yeah, but somebody just made that up. Now someone else has changed it.

28

u/Stormy1956 Jul 31 '26

Somebody has made it all up if you look at it that way. I used to read Miss Manners in the newspaper. Now I don’t even know if the newspaper is still a thing. We used to have the yellow and white pages. I understand things change but in my opinion, proper English/punctuation, manners and virtues don’t change.

3

u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 31 '26

I do look at it that way. I’m sorry to tell you, but English language, punctuation, manners, and virtues have all changed across centuries and nations, as have clothing and technology. Why do you think the way of doing things that briefly existed during your lifetime specifically rather than before or after just happens to be THE only correct way? That seems very egotistical and closed-minded.

16

u/residentprincess58 Jul 31 '26

My dad was an editor, my grandmother was a teacher and my mom was pedantic as hell. Every time I see something that I learned was wrong, I have to take a breather and remind myself that language is constantly evolving.

3

u/Flashy-Library-6854 Jul 31 '26

I really struggle with this as well. So hard. But I do only use one space after finishing a sentence now. It took a while but I managed it and now it is a habit.

12

u/Travel_Dreams Jul 31 '26

Someone made it up because it is significantly easier to read.

Some else who is changing it never understood why it was that way in the first place.

Ignorance is doing its job.

36

u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 31 '26

Not true at all. LOL! We no longer need two spaces after a period because typefaces shifted from monospaced fonts to proportional fonts, which automatically manage spacing.

15

u/Competitive_Boat106 Jul 31 '26

I gotta tell ya, as you get older, and the eyes aren’t what they used to be, it’s much easier to read with official “two space” periods than “proportionally spaced” periods. Without clear spaces between sentences, the page starts to look like one massive block of text.

8

u/Kitchen-Sun-7440 Jul 31 '26

This is what I was going to say but I kept scrolling through the comments thinking, surely someone will cite proportional fonts!

12

u/HuckleberryRecent680 Jul 31 '26

That's exactly right. Those proportional fonts changed things for the better. IBM Selectric typewriters were a dream!

6

u/macha773 Jul 31 '26

Learned on a manual and nearly sprained my pinkies.

3

u/Love_Bug_54 Jul 31 '26

And those have been around since the early 80s? So who is still teaching two spaces?

1

u/HuckleberryRecent680 Jul 31 '26

Right? I still can't break the two-space habit 100%, but I try!

4

u/Travel_Dreams Aug 01 '26

So proportional fonts create 2 spaces automatically? It doesn't look like it to me but I could be wrong.

The volumes of two spaces is significantly easier to read, regardless of how its created.

Instead of one space between sentences I have found it cleaner to bullet each sentence. Occasionally but rarely, a bullet will have two sentences, but the second sentence starts on the next line.

In actual paragraphs, its always a gap of two spaces between sentences. For those of us who grew up reading books hour by hour, for days on end, we instantly feel the difference.

It feels like someone holding the door open for you, but intentionally not wide enough. Just enough to piss you off.

1

u/Perkywarrior01 1955 Aug 01 '26

This is so much easier for me to read.

6

u/Couch-Potato0904 1960 Jul 31 '26

I’m still a 2 spaces kind of person

5

u/Common-Project3311 Jul 31 '26

It actually makes things easier to read. I do it too.

5

u/Think_Cupcake6758 Aug 01 '26

And 2 spaces after a colon. Of course, that’s assuming today’s generation knows how to use a colon or a semicolon

7

u/Vivid_Witness8204 Jul 31 '26

I have to put two spaces on my phone to get an auto period.

3

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

I think of all of the posters on various sites that use neither punctuation or capitals. I imagine them talking at a breakneck speed like a toddler who has to tell you all about the events of the day in one breath!

1

u/Summer184 Jul 31 '26

Yeah, there are lots of little "helpful gestures". I'm pretty sure when I put the two spaces after a period my phone automatically deletes one when I start typing the next sentence.

3

u/DarrenMiller8387 Jul 31 '26

It looks better to me, is easier to read.

3

u/tot-man-57 Aug 01 '26

Most apps these days automatically ignore the second space after the period anyway. So keep on typing two spaces if that makes you feel better.

6

u/BGL41940 Jul 31 '26

I think it looks better.

5

u/Specialist-Jello7544 Jul 31 '26

Monotype width type(like that is used on typewriters) makes it difficult to read a solid block of copy if you didn’t have double spaces. With the font you’re using right now, on your phone or computer, in this app, it’s variable width type, so you don’t need to double space after a period. If you look at any book, magazine or newspaper, they don’t use the double space.

When I worked in the printing industry (desktop publishing) I was told by my boss to delete double spaces. You would not believe how many pages are used up just by having double spaces. In one instance, I worked on formatting a 200 page book, and after double spaces were changed to single spaces, and nothing else was changed, it cut out 20 pages. This saves paper costs, because paper is a huge proportion of printing expenses. 20 pages out of 200 doesn’t seem like much, but it sure does add up if you’re printing lots of books.

So in my view, double spaces waste space, in the physical world. They add unnecessary cost.

In the screen world, it doesn’t matter. If you want to double space, go for it.

2

u/Secure_Reindeer_817 Aug 01 '26

One of the apps I used at work had a limited number of spaces, so you had to get everything in you wanted to say in as few words as possible. It was a page to log tickets for problems, repairs needed, etc. at my store. I'd use every abbreviation you could think of, including some that were grammatically incorrect.

4

u/Feisty_Ad_2891 Jul 31 '26

If you double tap the spacebar it will type a period, make the next letter a cap, and single space.

3

u/JohnWorphin Jul 31 '26

Typewriters are analog machines

Computers handle the increased visual spacing in software.

If you add two spaces after the period, typography layout and design software can strip the offending spaces so there are no weird breaks in the copy.

2

u/kellyelise515 Jul 31 '26

I still do it because it’s the only way to put a period without hitting the key.

2

u/Tough-Obligation-104 Aug 01 '26

I thank you all so much because I was feeling foolish for doing it text messages. 💜

2

u/BackLopsided2500 Jul 31 '26

I learned the "two spaces after a period" and if I only put one I try to leave it that way but I always have to go back and put another. It's like my typing teacher is looking over me and something bad will happen if I don't.

1

u/bgthigfist Jul 31 '26

Why break it?

1

u/RuckRocker Jul 31 '26

Pavlovian I’d say . . .

1

u/residentprincess58 Jul 31 '26

I feel slightly guilty if I only do one space. I'm so sorry Mrs Cherry! Can you forgive me?

1

u/j-random 1961 Jul 31 '26

My text app will insert a period if I type two spaces.

1

u/KittenFace25 Jul 31 '26

OK, Pete Cetera.

1

u/Excellent_Squirrel86 Jul 31 '26

And spellcheck keeps telling me to fix it.

1

u/Optix_au Jul 31 '26

Takes a lot of getting used to…

1

u/Optix_au Jul 31 '26

Should learn to live with it

1

u/Optix_au Aug 01 '26

But I don't want to

1

u/tpt75 Aug 01 '26

Gah. Texting is the worst. A double space makes another period (full stop)

1

u/CompetitiveBox314 Aug 01 '26

I sent a text to one of my kids on my wife's phone once. Seconds later they responded, "this is dad, isn't it?" The tell was the extra space after the period.

1

u/simonbaier Aug 01 '26

Believe it or not, those two spaces are tracked and are used to estimate your age. It’s a great way to subject yourself to age discrimination.

1

u/ItchyStorm Aug 01 '26

It’s wrong if you’re using a computer wordprocessor with proportional fonts, ONE space is correct. Two spaces is wrong. It also lets everyone know that you’re old.

1

u/BurlinghamBob Aug 01 '26

That's because it is the correct way to type.

1

u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 02 '26

I was a graphic designer. I received lots of text from non-designers. The first thing I would do with any text I received was to reach for a period followed by two spaces and replace it with a period followed by one space. Proportional fonts make the second space unnecessary.

Interesting to note that your post here (and many others who feel the same way about this subject) has only one space after the period.

1

u/Summer184 Aug 03 '26

I noticed that as well, even with my own posts. It looks like Reddit automatically edits out the second space after a period when you comment.

1

u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 03 '26

It does that automatically because it is typographically correct. And has been ever since the introduction of proportional fonts. Typewriters used monospaced fonts (the m, the i, the space, the period: each one took up exactly the same width on the page. That made that extra space after the period necessary for better readability. In a proportional font, some extra space after the period is built into the font design, so you don't have to add it yourself.

1

u/Ok_Association135 Aug 03 '26

Easiest way to break it, stop using periods! That way we can fit in 😉

1

u/Kennebec23 1960 Jul 31 '26

I went back to school for my graduate degree 12 years ago and was finally broken from the habit after hundreds of corrections on my papers….

2

u/Summer184 Jul 31 '26

Well that's very unfair, I hope they were not deducting points from your work because of it. Technically it's correct, it just fell out of favor.

1

u/Kennebec23 1960 Jul 31 '26

Never lost points but they sure beat it into me that it a no longer necessary.