single line spacing

In article ,
Daiya Mitchell wrote:

> It's not actually double-spacing that is the problem. Word changed the
> default to add more space between paragraphs, so that each paragraph
> will be single-spaced, but between paragraphs, you get extra space.
> Paragraphs are created every time you hit enter.
>
> To change in just this document, select all, go to Format | Paragraph.
> Look down to the find the Spacing: After field, and change 10 to 0.
>
> To change this in all documents created from now on, change the Normal
> style.
>
> First, select Format | Style. Normal should be selected.
>
> Click on Modify--make sure "add to template" is CHECKED. You'll see a
> Format menu in the bottom of the dialog--select Paragraph from it, and
> change the Spacing: After setting from 10 to 0.

By now it is pretty obvious that MS has made a decision that makes sense
-- to MS, and a bunch of purists... however, I'm pretty sure thaat most
users have got into the habit of Enter-Enter -- and this just confounds
us! Too bad MS just *did* it without offering a choice in Prefs.

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

glad to help.

framfrog.TakeThisOut@officeformac.com wrote:
> wonderful! thank you!
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

MC wrote:
> By now it is pretty obvious that MS has made a decision that makes sense
> -- to MS, and a bunch of purists... however, I'm pretty sure thaat most
> users have got into the habit of Enter-Enter -- and this just confounds
> us! Too bad MS just *did* it without offering a choice in Prefs.
>
>
Choice in Prefs would not be appropriate, really--it's the formatting of
a style rather than an app-wide setting. But I think it's a
win-win--either you learn to use space between paragraphs instead of
hitting enter enter, or you figure out how to customize Word, which
everyone should do. :) A Default button in Format | Paragraph would be
nice, though.

They also changed the font in the default style from Times New Roman to
Cambria--haven't seen anyone complain about that....
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

Well, if you want "Great looking Documents" like they promised on the can,
you have to have Styles that work. That presupposes those styles have some
leading applied.

If you use a different style, you won't get the problem.

If you reset the leading (Space above or Space below) on Normal style, you
are likely to have some "issues" with document themes :-)

We could, of course, give you some other reasons not to use "blank lines".
They are a disaster if you are trying to format or paginate a document: if
you have blank lines in it, you never will get control of the formatting.

But there are still a few people stuck back in the glass typewriter days who
find old habits hard to break.

Tell you what: You manage to break ME of the habit of hitting two spaces at
the end of every sentence, and I will show you how to create single
paragraphs :-)

Cheers

On 8/02/08 7:51 AM, in article
copespaz-BFD885.17210207022008.TakeThisOut@sn-radius.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net, "MC"
wrote:

> In article ,
> Daiya Mitchell wrote:
>
>> It's not actually double-spacing that is the problem. Word changed the
>> default to add more space between paragraphs, so that each paragraph
>> will be single-spaced, but between paragraphs, you get extra space.
>> Paragraphs are created every time you hit enter.
>>
>> To change in just this document, select all, go to Format | Paragraph.
>> Look down to the find the Spacing: After field, and change 10 to 0.
>>
>> To change this in all documents created from now on, change the Normal
>> style.
>>
>> First, select Format | Style. Normal should be selected.
>>
>> Click on Modify--make sure "add to template" is CHECKED. You'll see a
>> Format menu in the bottom of the dialog--select Paragraph from it, and
>> change the Spacing: After setting from 10 to 0.
>
> By now it is pretty obvious that MS has made a decision that makes sense
> -- to MS, and a bunch of purists... however, I'm pretty sure thaat most
> users have got into the habit of Enter-Enter -- and this just confounds
> us! Too bad MS just *did* it without offering a choice in Prefs.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

In article ,
John McGhie wrote:

> Tell you what: You manage to break ME of the habit of hitting two spaces at
> the end of every sentence, and I will show you how to create single
> paragraphs :-)

Maybe this would work:

Go into Auto Correct and create a new entry making " .[space][space] "
correct to: " .[space] "

And do the same for ? and !

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

In article
,
MC wrote:

> > Tell you what: You manage to break ME of the habit of hitting two spaces at
> > the end of every sentence, and I will show you how to create single
> > paragraphs :-)
>
> Maybe this would work:
>
> Go into Auto Correct and create a new entry making " .[space][space] "
> correct to: " .[space] "
>
> And do the same for ? and !

And if it *does* work, maybe keeping the default end of paragraph
spacing and making Word automatically correct two carriage returns
Correct to one might work... and if you can't get it towork within Word,
maybe something like TypeIt4Me or SpellCatcher could handle it.

That would let you keep typingthe way you always have -- two spaces at
theend of a sentence inyour case, two carriage returns in mine, and Word
(or something else) would quietly take care of things in the background.

OR... create an Apple Script that would automatically go through a
document and cleanthese things up once everything else was done.

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

MC wrote:
> Go into Auto Correct and create a new entry making " .[space][space] "
> correct to: " .[space] "
>
> And do the same for ? and !
>
Doesn't work. AutoCorrect uses space and punctuation to trigger an
AutoCorrect autocorrecting, so you'd wind up in some sort of vicious
loop, so you can't create an AC like that.

The solution to that one is using a macro to save a Find and Replace
that does the two spaces to one after the fact, and running it periodically.

Oh wait, no macros in 2008. But, hey, hallelujuh! There's a built-in
Automator action for F&R that should make saving a F&R easy! Slower
than my macro and I lost focus, but better than nothing.
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

In article ,
Daiya Mitchell wrote:

> MC wrote:
> > Go into Auto Correct and create a new entry making " .[space][space] "
> > correct to: " .[space] "
> >
> > And do the same for ? and !
> >
> Doesn't work. AutoCorrect uses space and punctuation to trigger an
> AutoCorrect autocorrecting, so you'd wind up in some sort of vicious
> loop, so you can't create an AC like that.
>
> The solution to that one is using a macro to save a Find and Replace
> that does the two spaces to one after the fact, and running it periodically.
>
> Oh wait, no macros in 2008. But, hey, hallelujuh! There's a built-in
> Automator action for F&R that should make saving a F&R easy! Slower
> than my macro and I lost focus, but better than nothing.

I'm resigned to the loss of macros, but I REALLY wish there was a way to
at least *simulate* the Recording of macros built in to Word. In other
words, make some kind of shell for AppleScripts... which ar a total
mystery to me, that I don't have the time to study and learn.

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

MC wrote:
> I'm resigned to the loss of macros, but I REALLY wish there was a way to
> at least *simulate* the Recording of macros built in to Word. In other
> words, make some kind of shell for AppleScripts... which ar a total
> mystery to me, that I don't have the time to study and learn.
>
Ditto. Use Help | Send Feedback--unlike VBA, which is going to die
anyhow, recordable AppleScript might have long-term value.

I've got some replacements for the things I used--I'll get them public
in a little bit.

I get the impression that making AS recordable would have been a huge
job. Even Apple doesn't make it recordable--and the recorder tends to
record bad code. Nevertheless, totally agreed that without a recorder,
this situation is totally untenable.
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

In article ,
Daiya Mitchell wrote:

> MC wrote:
> > I'm resigned to the loss of macros, but I REALLY wish there was a way to
> > at least *simulate* the Recording of macros built in to Word. In other
> > words, make some kind of shell for AppleScripts... which ar a total
> > mystery to me, that I don't have the time to study and learn.
> >
> Ditto. Use Help | Send Feedback--unlike VBA, which is going to die
> anyhow, recordable AppleScript might have long-term value.
>
> I've got some replacements for the things I used--I'll get them public
> in a little bit.
>
> I get the impression that making AS recordable would have been a huge
> job. Even Apple doesn't make it recordable--and the recorder tends to
> record bad code. Nevertheless, totally agreed that without a recorder,
> this situation is totally untenable.

I'm going to send feedback and use a couple of phrases of yours as if
they were mine!

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

MC wrote:
>
> I'm going to send feedback and use a couple of phrases of yours as if
> they were mine!
>

Feel free.
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

In article ,
Daiya Mitchell wrote:

> > I'm going to send feedback and use a couple of phrases of yours as if
> > they were mine!
> >
>
> Feel free.

It is done.

--

"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
W. Somerset Maugham
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing 

No Cigar! You have to change MY bad habits, not Word's :-)


On 8/02/08 10:32 PM, in article
copespaz-3E4C6A.08021508022008.TakeThisOut@sn-radius.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net, "MC"
wrote:

> In article ,
> John McGhie wrote:
>
>> Tell you what: You manage to break ME of the habit of hitting two spaces at
>> the end of every sentence, and I will show you how to create single
>> paragraphs :-)
>
> Maybe this would work:
>
> Go into Auto Correct and create a new entry making " .[space][space] "
> correct to: " .[space] "
>
> And do the same for ? and !

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name
 >> Stay informed about: single line spacing