[austechwriter] Re: VBA Macro query Re: emspace

austechies,

Let me put my old copy-editing hat on.

Steve is talking about rules and Elizabeth is taking about spaces.

There are three rules in contemporary conventional English:

* the hyphen
* the en rule (also called an en dash)
* the em rule (also called an em dash).

There is no additional thing called a "dash". Current usage of the word
"dash" blurs the distinction between en dashes and em dashes.

Steve is right in saying that a common use for an en rule is to separate
spans of numbers (as in pages 23?30). It is also extremely useful in joining
distinct entities so that their distinctness is not confused. For example,
if you  used a hyphen in "Michelson-Morley experiment" rather than an en
rule, the reader might think it was an experiment done by a single person
with a hyphenated surname. An en rule makes it clear that there are two
experimenters, not one.

Em rules are principally used to mark parenthetical material (as are
brackets, and pairs of commas).

Now for en and em spaces: with a proportional font, pressing the spacebar
inserts a proportional space. The width of a such a space depends on the
characters surrounding the space. On the other hand, en and em spaces (and
also numeric and thin spaces) gives you fixed width spaces. An en space is
always the width of the N character in the current font; an em space is the
width of the M character, a numeric space is the width of the zero
character, and a thin space is one-twelfth of an em space. Such spaces are
useful for vertical alignment in many situations. And thin spaces are mostly
used to separate a value from its unit.

HTH

Geoff Marnell



-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steve Hudson
Sent: July 25, 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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