Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop FAQ: Q. Should I hit the space bar once or twice at the end of a sentence?

Q. Should I hit the space bar once or twice at the end of a sentence?

A. The formulas that editors (who do use them) use to estimate the space a work will require when printed assume that sentences will be separated by two spaces. This is what typists are expected to do.

The extra space is generally not handled properly when a work is printed in a proportional font and will cause type to be set improperly if the type is set from a disk file. Editors who want disk submissions will generally prefer only one space between sentences in the disk file.

Fortunately most word processors have a search-and-replace function which should make it easy to meet both sets of requirements.

When you key the work in, key two spaces at the end of a sentence, just as typists are trained to do.
Use the file with two spaces between the sentences when you print your work in Courier 10 cpi. Most editors who want disk files will also want hard copy.
Before you copy your disk file to a floppy which you will send to an editor who wants disk files, use search-and-replace in your word processor to change occurrences of <space><space> to <space> . In most works the only occurrence of <space><space> will be the two spaces between sentences. If for some reason you have other occurrences of multiple spaces in your work, use "confirm" with your search-and-replace function.

Notice that it is very difficult to change single spaces between sentences to double spaces. You cannot use search-and-replace to substitute double spaces for single spaces because there are single spaces between each word. Using search-and-replace to insert an extra space after a period and a space will not do it either because sentences can end in question marks, exclamation points, and quotation marks following other punctuation marks. Obviously it is much easier to learn to put the double spaces in to begin with and to remove the extra space when it is desirable to do so.