Microsoft has released an update to the Word text editor with the only innovation - the program began to mark a double space after a period as an error. From now on, if there are two spaces at the beginning of a sentence, Microsoft Word will underline them and offer to replace them with one space. With the release of the update, Microsoft has ended a decades-long user dispute over whether double space is considered a bug or not. .
The tradition of putting two spaces after the point came to the modern world from the era of typewriters. In those days, monospace font was used for printing with the same spacing between characters. Therefore, in order for readers to clearly see the end of a sentence, a double space was always placed after the point. With the advent of computers and text editors with modern fonts, the need for two spaces after the point disappeared, but some people still continued to observe the old traditions.
A strong reason for continuing to put two spaces after the point was considered to be the assumption that they increase the speed of reading text. In 2018 scientists results of a study proving that a double space actually speeds up reading by about 3%. But the positive effect was observed only in people who themselves were accustomed to using two spaces. The so-called "one-spacers", which are the majority, were not affected by the increased distance between the point and the beginning of the sentence.
Microsoft is confident that some people will continue to put two spaces anyway. At least that's what conservative leaders might demand. Therefore, the developers left the option for people to ignore the error notification and make it so that the double space is not underlined.
An update with double space underlining as a bug is currently available for users of the desktop version of Microsoft Word. The company received mostly positive feedback about the innovation.
Source: 3dnews.ru