Daily Dose of DTP: 30. No More Double Hard Returns

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Daily Dose of DTP 30. No More Double Hard Returns From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing Yesterday we banished one of the most common carryovers from typewriting that plague desktop-published documents. Today, we'll tackle another spacing issue rooted in typewriter usage. This is a feature of page layout software that has also migrated, somewhat, to high-end word processing software. Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printing > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls) Rule #2 of Desktop Publishing Don't Use Double Hard Returns After a Paragraph With today's word processors and page layout applications it is possible to precisely control the amount of space between paragraphs. There is no longer a need for the old typewriter style of putting double hard returns to separate paragraphs (in computer terms that would be the equivalent of using the enter key to add space between lines). Learn how and why to do it with paragraph formatting. Today's Trivia Entering the Time Warp If you aren't old enough to have ever used a manual typewriter (the kind that didn't plug in to an electrical outlet) you may not realize the origins of the word return or carriage return, often applied to the Enter key on a standard computer keyboard. Yes, it means to return to the other side of the page. But it's because on manual typewriters the top part of the typewriter (the carriage that included the roll that held the paper) would physically move as you typed. There was a little lever you had to push when you got to the end of the line that would return the carriage to the starting postion and roll it up a little so you could start typing the next line. Pushing the return lever twice would cause the paper to roll up an extra line - to create space between paragraphs. This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Daily Dose of DTP' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement