How can I stop my iPad from inserting a period after a quotation mark? It started doing this a couple of updates ago, and I hoped that someone at Apple would have fixed it by now.

Homer's Mom wrote:

ChrisJ4203 -- Thanks for your response.

I DO type the period before the quotation mark. Before I became a university reference librarian, I was a professional secretary. We learned to put two spaces between the end of every sentence and the beginning of the next one. So, what I have done for decades seems to be leading to the auto-period problem. The double-tapping of the space bar between sentences that don't end with quotation marks doesn't result in the problem.

Settings>General>Keyboard>"." Shortcut

By the way, two spaces after a period is only correct with a mono-spaced font such as is found on a typewriter. Two spaces should never be used with fonts with variable width. It's never used in, for example, the printing of books or periodicals. The fonts generally used on computers are variable spaced (meaning that an "m" takes up more space on the page than an "I").

Also, if you're in England, the period can go outside the quotation marks.

Best of luck.

How are you trying to insert the period? If you are double-tapping the space bar, then it is inserting the period where it is supposed to, where the insertion point is at. While that may not be grammatically correct, it is how the auto-period works. You should enter the period before typing the final quotation mark to get the period where it would belong. If this is not what you are doing, then please describe. Otherwise, you can provide feedback to Apple regarding changes you would like to see. Go to http://www.apple.com/feedback and click on the appropriate subject area.

Thanks to Meg for covering my back. I teach keyboarding/typing at the local community college. It has been difficult for me as well to get used to the single space after a sentence. It is now the norm, and if you read business letter formats and research paper formats such as MLA and APA, you will find they say a single space after a sentence as well. I've gotten better as I have increased the amount of typing that I do for the college, but you have gotten the information you need about removing the shortcut for the period if desired. Enjoy your device(s).

One of those unusual instances where Apple makes something user selectable.

I had to look up where the punctuation goes in quotations. Despite my ordinarily excellent punctuating skills (😉), that one still gets me.

Homer's Mom wrote:

Meg, I loved your comment about how unusual it is that Apple makes something user selectable.

Apple is well known for deciding what they consider the best way to do things and then not offering many options. This works very well if you agree with them and causes lots of teeth gnashing if you don't.

I just love language and, yes, grammar and punctuation. Five years of Latin will warp anyone's mind!

Muscle memory is tough to overcome, isn't it? Glad I was able to point you in the right direction.

So if I start issuing you demerits will you quit double-spacing after a period?