I've recently been told of certain standards in text formatting and thought it my duty to present the following as a public service announcement.
Should anyone else be so ignorant as I was to these latest distinctions in style elements, I present them to you here:
You mustn't use a font without a serif on printed documents. It's too difficult to read; however,
on the web, serif-less is the way to go.
You mustn't tab five spaces at the beginning of paragraphs. One half-inch indent, if at all, is the standard practice. And Word will automatically do this for you--hence, the Tab button has been downsized right out of a job. Good old Tab, he had such a great work ethic and, while he was occasionally beaten down and taken for granted, he never failed to execute flawless measurement.
You mustn't double-space after periods. This is a very twentieth century way of doing things. Only one space after periods. One space. Is this because of Space-Bar related injuries? Is there a Space Bar union creating labor laws for Space Bars? Perhaps the Space Bars became angry over the Tab fiasco and lobbied for limited use in support of Tabs who now stand in unemployment lines, exactly five paces apart. Old habits die hard.
Which is my point exactly.
Update: My friend, Debbie Diesen, has an amusing little post of her own about this topic. Long live the old dogs. We like our old tricks.
4 comments:
Old habits do indeed die hard. Whenever my fingers walk into a space-bar, they always order a double.
DLD
And that is one reason why you are my friend, you little genius, you. :o)
is there any reason a) why the literary world deems it necessary to change rules ever 4 years? and b) why in the world it would no longer allow me to breathe between sentences? ridiculous. it is actually encouraging speed reading with no retention nor comprehension.
You bring a valid point. It's passive aggression to the extreme. The Powers That Be are actually trying to kill readers by depriving them of air. Period by period.
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