How do I add an autocorrect rule to always use an em space between sentences?
…and come to think of it, why isn’t that a default rule for English?
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See Two Space or Not Two Space – Arrant Pedantry for a fairly good discussion of spacing between sentences. In short: using wider spacing at the end of sentences was the rule for English printers for centuries, but it wasn’t for French printers. Somewhere in the 20th century, folks decided that different spacing after commas, semicolons and at the end of a sentence made printing unnecessarily expensive, so it was dropped. As a result, inserting wide spacing between sentences is no longer the norm, and therefore making it a default setting for autocorrect is a bad idea.
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I disagree, but stating my reasons would only prolong the debate. @LanceHaverkamp I don’t know the answer to your question, but I would encourage you to find a solution. Personally, it is much easier for me to read a properly written paragraph if there is some extra space following the period at the end of each sentence.
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I would advocate against em space between sentences, not because of the debate about single/double space but because of the implicit property of em space in Writer.
An ordinary space is an illusion. It is not a real character, only a placeholder manipulated by justification. This placeholder can be expanded so that text is justified on both sides of paragraph.
An em space will be considered as an effective real character and will not be transformed by justification. As a consequence it will never be expanded and may in the end be narrower than other interword spacing.
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If I’m remembering right, there are also “smaller” spaces like half width available in Unicode. It may then be possible to use autocorrect to replace {dot followed by space} with {dot+small space+regular space}
This would leave the “illusional” regular space to be expanded as usual, but also give additional room after the dot.
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Main problems I see:
It is hard to get all the right dots extended, without catching some extra…
TeX user accustomed to ".\ " may know the problem.
And not every app may handle all kinds of unicode-space correctly.
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Another issue is the potential for a ragged edge with the em space in justified text. Better two normal spaces if that is what is wanted, or even 3 to match width of em space.
inDesign doesn’t seem to break the line at an em space so LO would need some extra rules to handle em space.
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