Microsoft Word flags double spaces as errors, ending the great space debate

  • AUTHOR: dua
  • POSTED ON: April 25, 2020

One-Spacers are better than Double-Spacers.

Microsoft has declared that one-spacers have actually been in the right all along! There has always been an age-old debate as to whether or not users should give one space or double space after a period. Microsoft has clearly sided with the one-spacers and settled the score once and for all. The giant company has updated Microsoft Word so now if you give double spacing after a period, it will be highlighted as an error. Therefore, expect to see a recommendation to perhaps take a step back. Microsoft tested this update on the desktop version of the software. However, if you’re still on the two-spacer side, you can choose to ignore the recommendation. Although it is all in the testing stage, the complete update is expected to make the cut very soon! This unexpected but much-needed update has been received well by the critics.

Source: The verge

Kirk Gregersen, partner director of program management at Microsoft, said in a statement to The Verge, “As the crux of the great spacing debate, we know this is a stylistic choice that may not be the preference for all writers, which is why we continue to test with users and enable these suggestions to be easily accepted, ignored, or flat out dismissed in Editor.”

Much of the debate between one-space and double-space has been fueled by typewriters. Word and many other apps make the fonts seem proportional which is why developers believed that two spaces were pretty much redundant or unnecessary.

Updated April 25, 2020
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