Double space for period. How about comma, too?

Question

It's already kosher with the interface guidelines to
double space at the end of a sentence to get a
period, so how do I get people on the bandwagon
to make the spacebar a dual- or tri-function spacebar:
double tap for a comma, period, or question mark:
|   ,   |   .   |   ?   | <-----spacebar with
-----------------------           punct zones
Double-tap at the left edge for comma space, double-tap
near the middle for period space, and at the right edge
for question mark space. Why have to go to a separate
screen to type a comman and then come back to the text
keyboard? That's inifficient.
Comma, period, and question mark. That hits most of the major
marks used. Yeah, there's the exclamation point, but the
real estate on the spacebar reliably handles only three
marks. Four may be hard to employ, but I may be wrong.
I suggested this to Apple two years ago, and nothing's
been added to the OS.
Comments?
Doug Parker
Orlando, FL

Answer 1

Firstly, when I said InDesign inflates the space I didn't mean it whacked in a great chunk of space. It just gives a little bit more air relative to the fit of the text around it. You may not always see any noticeable difference. But when I read a book I don't want to see obvious white spaces at the start of every sentence. As long as the full point and following capital letter register on my brain fast enough that I am reading a new sentence, that's good enough for me. I think it makes reading more fluid. If you want to see extra space at the start of a sentence, then it's probably best to carry on with your double spacebar - unless you want to try something more exotic like a fixed width space.
I didn't mean you to literally type <full point><space><any character> into the find. I was just trying to tell you what to input. Type the full point, hit the spacebar, and then use the options list to the right of the find field (shown as a @), select "Wildcards", then select "any character". What you should see in your find field is . ^?
You could then enter .  ^?      - that's two spaces. See why I spelled it out as <space>? -  into the change to field.
k