[austechwriter] Re: VBA Macro query Re: emspace
- From: "Elizabeth Fullerton" <Elizabeth.Fullerton@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:15 +1000
Hmmm.... At http://www.editorium.com/freebies.htm, there is:
SpaceCadet
Need to use typographical spaces in Microsoft Word but can't use
Unicode? Try SpaceCadet, which creates 3-to-em spaces, thin spaces, hair
spaces, and so on. Especially useful for typesetters and desktop
publishers who need to approximate fine typography in Microsoft Word.
For more information, please see the documentation that comes with the
program.
And an answer to my question about when you would use en and en spaces
(for those who are interested):
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1709472543
The em space is as wide as an em, which is a linear measure
equal to the
point size. For example, in 12-point type, an em is 12 points
wide. In
traditional typesetting, an em space was used as fixed-width
indentation
at the beginning of a paragraph. Nowadays we usually specify
first line
indent as part of paragraph formatting. But if you insist on
using an em
space, you can get one by clicking Insert > Symbol > Special
Characters
The en space is half as wide as an em space. For example, in
12-point
type, an en space is 6 points wide. It's basically the same
thing as a
figure space, and it's used in aligning lists of figures, or
numbers.
For example, in a list like this--
8. Lorem ipsum.
9. Dolor sit amet.
10. Consectetuer adipiscing elit.
--the periods and terminal figures all line up because the space
in
front of 8 and 9 is the same width (one en) as the 1 in the
number 10.
That's right; in professional typefaces, all of the "lining
figures"
(numbers used in lists) are also one en wide. (Those old
typesetters
knew what they were doing.) In Microsoft Word you can achieve
the same
effect with tabs, but if you really want to use an en space,
click
Insert > Symbol > Special Characters > En Space.
In traditional typesetting, there are several other kinds of
spaces,
including (getting progressively fatter) the zero-width space,
the hair
space, the thin space, and the three-to-em space.
As its name indicates, the zero-width space has no width; you
can't even
see it. Nevertheless, it will break at the end of a line, which
comes in
handy when you've got a long string of characters that you *do*
want to
break but that otherwise wouldn't. For example, you might have
some
words joined by an em dash--like this. Ordinarily Microsoft Word
won't
break on the left side of the dash, which can make for some ugly
typography if you've got long words and narrow columns. To
remedy the
problem, put a zero-width space in front of the dash. How?
Microsoft
Word doesn't include one, so you'll have to make your own:
1. Insert an em space (since we want the size to be fixed
relative to
the current point size).
2. Select the space.
3. Set the space's point size to 1. (We'd set it to 0, but Word
won't
allow it. Still, 1 works pretty well, although you *can* see it,
which
means you'd better balance it with another one on the right side
of the
dash.)
The hair space is also sometimes used, for aesthetic purposes,
on both
sides of an em dash. I've also seen it used between the letter f
and a
closing quotation mark or other characters that look crowded
together.
Again, you'll have to make your own:
1. Insert an em space (since we want the size to be fixed
relative to
the current point size).
2. Select the space.
3. Set the space's point size to 1/10 of the current size, or as
close
to it as you can manage. Remember that you can type in .5 (4.5,
5.5,
etc.) to bump up the size by half a point. If you need to make
the hair
space smaller than 1/10 of the current point size, feel free;
many
typographers do.
Then there's the thin space, which some typographers (French
ones, for
example) use after certain punctuation marks, such as the colon.
It's
also used to set off the first two numbers of years that are
more than
four numbers long: 10 000 B.C. (Remember, commas shouldn't be
used in
dates.) I've also seen it used between ellipses. To make a thin
space:
1. Insert an em space (since we want the size to be fixed
relative to
the current point size).
2. Select the space.
3. Set the space's point size to 1/5 of the current size, or as
close to
it as you can manage. Remember that you can type in .5 (4.5,
5.5, etc.)
to bump up the size by half a point. Some typographers define a
thin
space as half the size of a standard word space.
The three-to-em space, as you've probably surmised, is as wide
as a
third of the current point size. For a size of 12, that would be
4. The
Chicago Manual of Style says to use this space between ellipses,
which
is okay with me. By now, you know how to make one.
There ought to be a better solution than making spaces by
hand--PageMaker and QuarkXPress come to mind. But if you must
work in
Word, there is another way. It's dark and dangerous, and its
name is
Unicode. But that's a subject for another day.
By the way, I'm not saying you should actually *use* all these
spaces in
your day-to-day work. I'd use them only if I had to approximate
fine
typography in Microsoft Word, which is possible but certainly
not easy.
If you ever need to do that, maybe these spaces will help.
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Hudson [mailto:cruddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, 25 July 2003 4:19 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [austechwriter] Re: VBA Macro query Re: emspace
CMS says (from old memory) something like a sequential range uses an en,
without spacing if numbers. Ems are for sentence breaks. Word uses
dashes
and ens. Jack Lyons goes on about this at length in several of his back
issues available free from www.editorium.com. His dissertation on the
subject is the most comprehensive I have seen.
Steve Hudson
Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia
Tricky stuff with Word or words for you.
Email: steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Products: http://www.geocities.com/word_heretic/products.html
Spellbooks: 728 pages of dump left and dropping...
-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth
Fullerton
Sent: Friday, 25 July 2003 11:12 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [austechwriter] Re: VBA Macro query Re: emspace
Actually, I think it turns into an en-dash, and I think the original
question was about an em-space (something I've never used!).
So - a philosophical question - when *do* you use en and em-spaces?
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Hudson [mailto:cruddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]=20
Sent: Friday, 25 July 2003 11:11 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: mbwest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [austechwriter] Re: VBA Macro query Re: emspace
Here's what I do. Type:
this - is an em.
the dash turns into Word's em dash when you press space after is.
Select the em dash only.
Alt+F11
Ctrl+G
? ascw(selection.range.text)
Steve Hudson
Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia
Tricky stuff with Word or words for you.
Email: steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Products: http://www.geocities.com/word_heretic/products.html
Spellbooks: 728 pages of dump left and dropping...
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael West
The real Steve wrote:
> If you want consistency with word's em's use chrw$(8112).
Can you point me to any doco on that? All
my usual suspects are drawing a blank here.
--
Mike West
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