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Microsoft Word Decrees All High-School IT Teachers Were Wrong: Double Spaces Now Flagged as Typos

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 28 2020, @01:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-then-they-discovered-  dept.

martyb writes:

Microsoft decrees that all high-school IT teachers were wrong: Double spaces now flagged as typos in Word:

One space good, two spaces bad? (This story appears near the end of the article; scroll down to see it.)

Finally, Microsoft found time to weigh in on the age-old debate of just how many spaces belong after a full stop (or "period"). Thanks to an update, Word will apparently treat two spaces as a typo and festoon a double-spaced document with red, squiggly lines unless told to ignore the rule.

A debate for the ages finally settled. Where do you stand? ⚔️ https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1253655739379470338

— Microsoft 365 (@Microsoft365) April 24, 2020

Not everyone is impressed with change; this hack, for example, has fond memories of bashing away on the keys of a typewriter back in the day and slapping the spacebar twice between sentences [...]. It has proven a hard habit to break. Others, such as Jason Howard, senior project manager on the Windows Insider Team, called for a poll on the matter.

@Microsoft365 has thrown down the gauntlet. Apparently #MicrosoftWord will now flag double-spacing between sentences as an error.

Which side will you pick? Choose wisely...

— Jason Howard (@NorthFaceHiker) April 24, 2020

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:37PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:37PM (#987822)

    Perhaps you meant English teachers. I don't think IT cars about how many spaces you use.

    Can anybody explain this using a care analogy?

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:42PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:42PM (#987824)

    Stay 6 ft apart instead of 12 ft. My God 12 ft!?!

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by RS3 on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:50PM

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday April 28 2020, @02:50PM (#987832)

      That's what she said.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:30AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:30AM (#988059)

      No!! Microsoft is now saying 3ft is right not 6ft standard.

      Microsoft is just WRONG

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:12AM

        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:12AM (#988070)

        No!! Microsoft is now saying 3in is right not 6in standard.

        Yep... that's what he said.

  • (Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday April 28 2020, @11:53PM (1 child)

    by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <{axehandle} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday April 28 2020, @11:53PM (#988052)

    Can anybody explain this using a care analogy?

    OK: I couldn't possibly care less about whatever microsoft feels like saying.

    I can even think of a car analogy: I'm not going to waste time listening to microsoft's opinion on whether or not double declutching is necessary with an unsynchronised gearbox.

    --
    It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:46AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @01:46AM (#988078)

      microsoft's opinion on whether or not double declutching is necessary with an unsynchronised gearbox

      It is, but they call them synchronized gearboxes instead.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by datapharmer on Wednesday April 29 2020, @02:25AM

    by datapharmer (2702) on Wednesday April 29 2020, @02:25AM (#988083)

    In a world of things like python we can safely say that IT folk are concerned with whitespace and the choice of delimiters. Whether we want to be or not.