Ever since I was taught typing at school I have put in a double space after a full stop. I just thought that was what you did.
A sub-editor for a magazine I write for emailed the other day and asked if I could try and just do a single space which completely surprised me. I then googled and found that I am completely out of date and that the double space was eliminated years ago.
Funny!
Is anyone else a double space person?

Double spaces for me, always.

I was taught keyboard skills by a very strict teacher who would take away marks if we used the single space method. How times have changed. I knew about the change to single spacing but it has never worried me. Is it to save space? If so, what are they doing with all that saved space? Maybe punctuation is like language, it evolves. He who pays the piper, clearly calls the tune.
Scanning what I have written it is clear that I am still a two space person. With the preview my two spaces have been reduced to one. Maybe just a little spaced out, at times.

Yes, I am a double space person Helen. We are obviously of the 'old school', although I have noticed, as Marnie states, that when our thread messages come up on Foodlovers, there is only one space after a full stop. Old habits die hard with me, so I guess I'll just carry on the way I've always done it.
Regards,
Dawn.

Must be showing my age. Double spaces for me. I think it actually makes reading easier. Is there a reason why the rule has changed? Till Helen mentioned it, I had not heard of it before.

Double spaces for me too. And I put them in when I edit others' work! Oh bother.

Double spaces for me. Still applies in the job I do. However, you'll notice when our messages are posted on the internet, any double spaces are reduced to one space.

Double space for me too.

I'm a double-space person too, most of the time. And just to show my age, I remember when we used to put a comma at the end of each line of an address, and we also addressed our letters using Esq. after a man's name, i.e. J.F. Smith Esq., (Note the full stops after the initials). How things have changed!

In the late 80's / early 90's we were taught to use a single space. But this was after typing class had gone by the wayside and was part of desktop publishing taught as a component of computer science.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2016 12:27AM by Jenna.

This is slightly off topic, but I can remember being taught to type on a manual typewriter (and yes 2 spaces after a full stop, and the commas as Lorna has said) But we had these square clothes with elastic which covered the keyboard, so we could not look. Even to this day, even if I say so myself, I am an extremely fast typist and can look out the window as I type or hold a conversation and look at someone.

Something to be said for the old methods!!

It is because computers use a proportional font as opposed to typewriters which had a mono-spaced font. So if using a typewriter (does anyone?), two spaces is still correct but if using a computer or other device, it should be one space.

Irene, I remember the cloth 'apron' we had to use over our keyboards. We also had to learn to type rhythmically, to the tune of Wheels. Imagine a class of girls (yes, all girls) all depressing the keys at the same time. When one girl got it wrong the whole class would be disrupted and we would burst into laughter, much to the chagrin of our teacher.

Even to this day I can type as Irene describes: not looking at the keyboard and words appearing in rapid succession, though I must admit, with today's flat keyboards, it's easy to hit a wrong key occasionally. And I note there's no longer the little raised dot on the J and F to tell us our index fingers were in the right place for accurate typing.

I remember our keyboard cover was a wooden frame which fitted over the keyboard and you put your hands under it onto the keyboard. I am another speed typist and you never forget the knack I reckon. My working life started in a legal firm - initially no electric typewriters, dictaphones, photocopiers, cell-phones or all the marvellous things a computer and the internet can do now. Just typewriters, telephones, snail-mail and telegrams. And - yes we did have correction fluid, but couldn't use that in legal documents!
Regards,
Dawn.

Single space for me, never done it any other way. Just think, a single space is more efficient when typing :-)
Vanessa

The only time I have a problem with single space is if the type is small, as in text messages and similar, then some words can appear to blend together. I don't need glasses for close work.

Thank you, Lynette. You've made sense of it to me. I will try to conform.

Dawn, your comments leads me down Memory Lane. I remember the huge mortgage forms in pale blue and you could not erase a mistake. Also, the Wills. I swear, I would get down to the last line and make a mistake, so had to do the whole page again and, sometimes, again and again and again. In the end I would get another secretary to type it for me. My goodness, we felt spoiled when computers came in. I shudder to think how much paper we wasted and we were all good typists.

Those mortgage forms - oh yes I do remember, Chris, and the multiple clauses in many of the Wills which went on, and on, clause after clause in legal lingo, I used to take a huge breath and slowly blow out before I commenced on those - how Joe Blogs could properly understand them was beyond me! The jargon has been simplified to a degree since but still plenty of room for improvement me thinks. Yes, the rubbish bin was well patronised by the typists of which there were only two of us! When the Dictaphone came along I was very happy because I would hate sitting in front of the Bosses to do shorthand, but on the other hand if the bosses mumbled into the Dictaphone, which happened often, the air around me would often turn a bit blue because the dialogue was soooo difficult to decipher! Those were the days.

Apologies for going off topic!
Regards,
Dawn.

One thing with dictaphones that always puzzled me - how did you know how long the letter was going to be?
Without knowing that, you would have no idea where to start the main body of the letter to give a balanced and professional look. I much preferred shorthand as it was easy to judge how long the letter is, but with dictaphone, you haven't been there to hear it first, nor have you got anything visual to aid you. Did you play a whole letter through before beginning to type it?

No Lorna, we didn't play the letter through first. The bosses would first of all state 'long letter' or 'short letter' as they were aware of the fact that we would not otherwise have a clue and we had long and short sized letterhead stationary. They didn't always get it right though! Also by the time all the formalities were typed on the letterhead before you got to the actual body of the letter, an acceptable amount of space would be taken up for the letter to look business-like and professionally typed. Through narration of the letter the Boss would say when he wanted headings, capitals and underlines, new paragraphs and when and how he wanted it set out i.e. in paragraphs numbered 1, 2,3 or a), b), c) etc. and they would spell out difficult names. The bosses soon found out how and when to instruct us as they were doing their dictation.

One of the worst features with one boss in particular was when he held the microphone for dictation purposes his fingers were never still and all this sort of squeaking/rubbing noise would be picked up by a very sensitive microphone and completely noise-over some of his words or even a complete phrase making the typist's life hell. I can tell you the air would go from blue to purple then!! Such fun!
Regards,
Dawn.
The Dictaphone made life a lot easier for the Bosses as they could dictate letters after hours etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2016 08:10AM by Dawn.

Still off topic. Dawn the noise from the restless fingers reminded me of one of the barristers I worked for who would dictate memos while he walked up a steep street. The breathing got a bit heavy at times! When he walked through Albert Park and dictated I could often here the birds tweeting. Yes, those were the days. They are a very very distant memory now. And, I preferred shorthand to Dictaphone. So much depended on the skill of the bosses when it came to dictating. Some were downright inconsiderate. I had my fair share of those at times.

And again still off topic, but what a walk down memory lane. Doing wages for a commercial construction firm with over 100 builders - all calculated on an adding machine and then written on the manual Kalamazoo system and they were paid in cash - which I would have to hop in the work vehicle and drive down to the local BNZ on my own and bring back in the bank cash bag, with the same routine every Thursday morning, and then sit in an unlocked office and put everyone's wages into little brown envelopes with their kalamazoo hand written wage slip.

Working in an Accountants, and operating an old manual ledger machine - I can't for the life of me remember the brand.

The boxes of carbon paper in stationery to be used when typing - no photocopiers then. And how about the fact that every envelope had to be typed - you would not send out a handwritten envelope, as you do now.

And I still remember in the 70s having drinkies with friends, and she was telling me about this amazing facsimile machine the Government Department she worked at, had purchased. And they could send a written page over wires and the destination would receive the exact same copy. Admittedly we were tiddley, but I remember that piece of machinery occupied our conversation that entire evening - ie how was it possible? What an amazing invention

Aha, the heavy breathing, that's so funny Chris, and your Boss was being very time productive!

What about the Gestetner? That was a great machine in it's time! We used to paint our fingernails with the bright pink Gestetner correcting fluid!! At least we could easily correct Gestetner sheets when we made a mistake.

When typing letters (and there was always at least one, sometimes 2 or 3 carbon copies as well) - the date was situated on the right hand side of letterhead stationery, and the first thing we typed on the left hand side (above the addressee's address) was the Boss's initials, plus our own. This identified who typed the letter and for which Boss. i.e. mnb/rsw. If you were not careful handling the carbon paper it would easily transfer onto your fingers so you had to be careful where you put your fingers otherwise you'd leave a black mark - no rubbing your eyes or nose and you had to be very careful not to smudge it onto the newly completed letter - a black smudge is not business-like nor acceptable, so you'd start again amid a few curses under your breath! (Don't worry we had our fun too - it wasn't all thick air and cursing).
Regards,
Dawn.

Two spaces after a full stop here too.

Oh, the memories these posts are bringing back. The Gestetner, and the old manual typewriters.

The first firm I worked for after I left school had what was, I believe, one of the first commercial computers - a Hollerith machine, punch cards and all. I remember all the office staff holding their breaths (and crossing their fingers) every time a "run" went through the machine.

I used to enjoy relieving the receptionist from time to time, as she had an electric typewriter - wow!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2016 04:26AM by Margaret.

When we got our first fax machine the lawyers all got worried that immediate replies would be expected and it would be the end of the world. Little did they know what lay ahead - computers and email!

Wasn't allowed to learn to type, the school, not my family. Oh how I regret that decision, 1 space, 2 spaces, hunt and peck for me. So while the rest of you post comments at the speed of light just think of me tap tapping away.

I've really enjoyed reading your posts on this topic. I never expected the reminiscing, if that's the right word but it has taken me back in years and is an added bonus. I was one of the "commercial girls", a course decided by my mother for me. I won't go into why she chose it, despite my protests but she had my best interests at heart. She bought me an old typewriter at the start of the school year. I was lucky enough for a couple of the senior teachers to make it possible for me to take a wider range of subjects in depth as well. I cannot fault my old commerce teacher. In the senior years, when there were only a few girls from my original original class still at school, she would sit and talk to us about topics that really broadened our horizons. A lot of the girls, who weren't in her commerce class, were a little scared of her but underneath that stern exterior was a heart of gold. Something we don't usually realise until we are a lot older. Years later one girl spoke of being taken to task by her for walking along and whistling. We had a laugh about that.
I always declared I never wanted to sit and do shorthand and typing in a boring office all day and although I occasionally did a little bit of typing I got my wish.
Stephanie D, I think you may be kidding and are a fast two fingered typist . Even my husband can get up to a fair speed with two fingers, sometimes even with gusto!

Irene, did you work for Hawkins Construction in Tawa Street?? Your weekly wage routine was exactly the same as mine. In addition, when calculating the pay for each worker, I had a very fancy 'adding machine' that must have been a forerunner to the computer. It had an LCD screen that showed my computations as I was going, but I still had to write everything down. The machine calculated the various components of the pay packet, such as dirt money, danger money,holiday pay, etc, etc. I taught myself to use the machine keyboard with my left hand so that I didn't have to keep putting my pen down to fill in the hand-written payslip with all the details on it.

Re the ledger machine, was it a Burroughs? They were one of the best machines out and available world-wide. I remember in my first job at Barclays Bank in England, I was in awe of the girls who operated the Burroughs Sensimatics: huge machines with rows and rows of numbers. Their fingers would fly over these enormous keyboards, rarely making an error.

And who remembers the Roneo duplicating machine? A Sort of photo-copier, it used heat sensitive paper to duplicate whatever you put through the rollers. The only problem was, the pinkish-coloured paper copy used to fade away to nothing after a period of time, so it was useless if you wanted to keep a permanent record of whatever you copied.

Helen, we may have gone off topic, but we're clearly all enjoying the memories (and revelling the modern marvels of computers, thankful the old days are way in the past).

This is a wonderful topic and also apologies to Helen.

Lorna, I was the Wages Clerk at Holman Construction, and it was a very old fashioned adding machine for me. They were in Vickery Street in Te Rapa, and I have no idea when it happened but Fletcher Construction now own them - and they are still in Vickery Street, albeit in much more modern premises

The Accountant I worked for was in Garden Place - and you are so right and have a wonderful memory. It was a Burroughs Ledger Machine!!

I can remember I had a lump the size of a golf ball on my left wrist and that was from using a manual typewriter. They were going to operate but I said no, and it disappeared on it's own (that was thanks to electric typewriters)

We then went to Australia, and when we came back to NZ, after 5 years at home with kiddies, I was successful in obtaining a job at Trust Bank in their Computer Services Department... that was in 1987 I think, and I remember the mainframe computer (my job to work late every 2nd week to run back ups), and we had computers on our desks. Big huge clunky things, and when I look at what I work on now - no tower anymore, and just a flat and thin LED screen - it is amazing. Even floppy disks are no more.

Isn't life wonderful, when you look back and see the changes that have happened and really in a relatively short time span!!