Update from Selectric.org

Selectric.org ^ | September 10, 2004 | Jim Forbes

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

update: I dragged my Executive up from the basement, it's not working too well...but I did type some of the 19 may 72 memo. It doesn't fit on the page using a real vintage proportional spacing typewriter...and it looks different.

[elli1]

I should add that if you're using a REAL typewriter (as opposed to a word process) that the dbl space rule probably still applies.

[ko_kyi]

Not only did I love typing, it is the only really useful class I took in high school.

I took typing in 1984 and was taught to double-space at the end of a sentence. I wonder when that became a dated practice.

[Cboldt]

Re double spacing at the end of a sentence. I still do it ...

Me too. HTML gets rid of the double space, but I always use it. Word processors can be tuned to catch either way, double space or single space at the end of a sentence.

[elli1]

Am I dating myself.

Short answer: YES! (That would be BOTH of us...)

[Cboldt]

Is somenone looking at the Kerry citations as we speak?

I'm sure somebody is! But AFAIK, there is no evidence the documents were not actually produced in the time frame they are claimed to have come from. The documents may contain errors of fact, but they appear to have been produced "at the time."

[cajungirl]

typing was the best course I ever took in my life. Now how did they put that ending the double space over on me. I never even noticed.

We need signs with the superscript "th" and "st" on them,,but how do you get the puter to do it?

[Mamzelle]

Look at the double el (ll) spaces.

[GVnana]

Another 60's typing veteran here -- vouching for the double space practice. (I still catch myself doing it now!) I used to roll the platen up 1/2 line to make footnotes for term papers on a manual, but that only worked with double spaced text. I suppose the same convention could've been used for superscripts, but I just remember typing them on the same line, no spacing with the numbers, such as:
2nd, 1st, 11th, etc.

I think some Democrat has outsmarted himself AGAIN.

[dfwgator]

The designation of "The Stupid Party" has now been officially passed to the Democrats.

[Doc Savage]

I worked for Merck in 72. It was the #1 Pharma Co., in the world at that time. Tehy had money. Plenty of money. IBM Selectrics were just starting to be phased in. Very few and only for the Exec. Secretaries.
Wang Word Processors hit around 78-79. Hard to believe that some small AF outpost in Texas in 71-72 was providing
advanced Selectrics to their staff. Typewriters were still quite prevalent in business.

[agrace]

Me too, I always do. Definitely a habit from high school typing but I think it looks better too.

[GVnana]

You know -- the sad thing is -- anyone with half a brain, who would make a serious effort at forgery, would bother to review old military documents and notice things like this. As Pat Caddell noted, (and I agree) the Kerry camp is "too clever by half". They're betrayed by their own "know best" attitudes, shoddy educations and an inability to appreciate authenticity.

Don't you want to know who's at the bottom of this one?

[dfwgator]

"The Gang that Couldn't Type Straight"

[Nataku X]

bump.

[yukong]

same here. when in high school in the late 70s, during my jr. year, I needed one elective class. I didn't know what to take. My dad told me to take typing. I didn't want to. He told me that a person that could type was way ahead of ones that couldn't. I didn't want to, but he pressed me to take the class. Now, 26 years later, I can say that it was the one single most valuable class I took in high school. Back then, no one knew that we would all have computers one day. But of all the things I learned in high school, the only thing (other than english) that I use every day, a lot every day, is typing. Thanks Dad.

[mvpel]

That's not standard any more? I still do that (and just did).

HTML actually has to do "period space  " in order to have two spaces after a period. The HTML parser ignores any additional spaces after the first following a period.

[RogueIsland]

drip, drip, drip...

[RogueIsland]

Another really interesting tidbit that someone else brought up on another thread was that double spacing at the end of a sentence was ''the Rule'' at the time

I still do that...

[mvpel]

I think the new rule is two spaces in monospaced fonts, and one space in proportional fonts.

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/nosearch/bl-onetwospaces.htm