Extra space after apostrophe

Anonymous
2010-07-19T19:31:29+00:00

Every time I type an apostrophe " ' " Word adds an extra space before the next letter.

For example, If I type don't, Word makes it come out Don' t 

Needless to say, this is annoying.  Does anyone have an idea how to make this problem go away?

Thnx

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-07-20T08:14:10+00:00

Hi RER

This sounds to me as if the language formatting may be set to something other than English. French, perhaps? Some languages require spaces before or after punctuation, so Word does this for the user. Which can be annoying if you aren't actually typing in that language.

At the bottom of the Word status bar you may see a little box with the language. If you don't right-click the status bar (that's the bar across the bottom of the Word windows,  in case you're not familiar with the term) and choose "Language" from the context menu. This will tell you the language formatting of the selected text.

If the text in the document is not an English "dialect", and you want the entire document to be in English, press Ctrl+A to select the document. Click on this "Language" button in the status bar, then select the language you want to use from the dialog box that pops up.

Cindy Meister, VSTO/Word MVP

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-05-10T21:37:12+00:00

    Thanks for your advice.  But it didn't help me.  I went back to my document and checked.  And it sure does look like it's in English.  Everything that I typed is in English.  Thanks again for your advice.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-05-10T21:44:08+00:00

    Thanks for your advice.  But unfortunately it didn't work for me.  I check my Fonts Folder and the font I use, Courier New, is there.  Thanks again for your advice.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-10T22:28:54+00:00

    Thanks you for your advice.  I think you might just have explained my problem - for others out there as well.  I've been working with Courier New for years, probably since it's creation, and I didn't know about that 'extra space built-in' but now I do.  Thanks again for the advice.  Is there anyone you know of out there that might not how to correct that?

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  4. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-05-10T23:01:10+00:00

    I went back to my document and checked.  And it sure does look like it's in English.  Everything that I typed is in English.

    Look in the Language dialog box to find out which language is applied at the insertion point. You haven't explained which version of Word you are using, but, assuming it's Word 2013, click Review | Language | Set Proofing Language.

    As an alternative, you can display the Language control on the status bar; just right-click the status bar and make sure there is a check mark next to Language.

    Also, to tell if there's an actual space character next to your quotation mark, display nonprinting marks. Nonbreaking spaces are represented by degree signs (°) and "ordinary" spaces are represented by dots (·).

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