Comments on: Old punctuation habits die hard

By: Emily Cotler

Emily Cotler — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:38:50 +0000

Congrats to you all for your typing confessions. Keira, loving Notepad is okay (really, it is!). Hope, I also have White-Out in my desk. Haven, stay the course. Don’t go back to the double-space. Be strong. And Abi… Abi. Thanks for taking care of us all.

By: Keira Soleore

Keira Soleore — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:23:50 +0000

I’m a single spacer, and I love Notepad. (Oops! Did I just admit that in writing? Don’t tell my hubby tho.)

When I need to copy from HTML or Rich-text formatted docs, I paste into Notepad first, then copy that and paste it wherever I need to.

Then again, I’m a command-prompt-lovin’, raw-HTML-codin’ kinda gal. So I may just be a nut job.

By: Haven Rich

Haven Rich — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:08:37 +0000

I typically don’t double space. I’ve always been in the habit of not doing it. Only when I began writing did I learn it was the manuscript format. Even now, I often don’t do it.

In word, I always clear the styling and that seems to help…some hehe.

By: Hope Tarr

Hope Tarr — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:57:54 +0000

Admitting you have a…sniff, problem is half of the battle, is it not? In that spirit:

“Hi. My name is Hope Tarr and I am a double spacer.”

I am from the era of the Smith-Corona, liquid White-Out, and yes, correction tape. I remember the agony and ecstacy of eraseable “onion skin” paper. I don’t only know what a mimeograph machine is, but I know how to use one. My first “computer” was a VAX/VMS mainframe. Back in those Word Starry nights, we thought personal computers were a short-lived fad.

Double spacing after a period was drilled into us as babes. Even though I’m a pick-and-pecker, double spacing just feels so…right.

But now thanks to Wax I have come to see the error of my ways. Beyond wanting to be current and yes correct, I dread the fact that all these years I have been typing well, old.

Only now I am committed to doing better, to doing right. Just as I wouldn’t be caught dead (or alive) tooling around the city in opaque tights or a “pot holder” vest, I am putting my double spacing days behind me. For good.

Whew, confession really is good for the soul.

By: Abi Bowling

Abi Bowling — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:55:58 +0000

I remember, however many years ago it was, when I had to re-train myself. It was a pain, but now it is second nature.

Speaking as someone who receives content in from clients for Wax, I can confirm from experience — the time it takes to re-format can really add up.

One of my pet peeves is receiving a highly-formatted Word doc, with double line spacing and indents and special paragraph styles and (shudder) bulleted lists. When you copy from Word, you unwittingly copy a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes code. Placing that content onto a web page is not as easy as copy and paste — a DE-formatting process is required. And many a time I’ve received SOS emails from clients who have posted to their blog only to have the font appear completely wacky on the live page. My first response is always, “Did you copy directly from Word?” Luckily, WordPress, the platform we use for our clients’ blogs (and our own) has a built in “paste from Word” function that strips all formatting.

I could go on and on, but I won’t subject you to my ramblings…