Precisely. The UK has moved ahead of the US in this respect. Another
difference: in the UK, abbreviations pronounced as words (acronyms), such as
Aids, have initial caps only. Here we tend to keep them as all caps until
they become true words (the original unabbreviated form almost forgotten),
such as scuba and radar.

It is certainly true that a plethora of periods (full stops) is
messy-looking. It is for this reason that I avoid abbreviations entirely
when possible (though I'm often thwarted by AP style, which converts all
written-out state names to abbreviations). I will not dispute that UK usage
looks "cleaner." But until it becomes much more common in the US, it will
continue to look "wrong" to me.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jezebel" wrote in message
...
The use of punctuation around abbreviations is a matter of typography, not
grammar. The 'rules' of typography -- like those of grammar and
punctuation -- change continuously. Just have a look at a New Yorker from
the days of Ross and Thurber (or even the early Dr Seuss books) to see how
much has changed.




"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
I am old enough to have been taught English, in the UK, when grammar and
written English form was considered important. A full stop (period in the
US) to denote an abbreviation, was always considered correct; thus Mr.
would have been used *with* a full stop. General sloppiness has crept
into
English usage and as our education system now couldn't seem to care less,
either appears equally acceptable,


--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Tony Jollans wrote:
I'm hesitant to weigh in again but here goes ..

Technically Mr (an abbreviation) should probably have a full stop /
period; it is acceptable, but not normal, in UK usage - I believe it
is normal in US usage.

USA, MVP, FAQ, etc. are acronyms and do not normally have full stops
in either UK or US usage AFAIK. Because they are in upper case they
are distinguishable from words.

e.g., i.e., etc. in lower case have full stops to distinguish them
from words - if nothing else it helps the spellchecker

There aren't any hard and fast rules. We have a living language (or
two).

Word's readability statistics seem to be able to handle all this.
Word's sentence count is not so good (but doesn't simply count full
stops).


"Greg Maxey" wrote in message
...
Actually Tony didn't say it was good. He said UK usage without the
period is good and U.S. usage with the period (in the U.S.) is
normal. That clarified, I really don't know what point Jezebel was
trying to make.

--
Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.

Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
"Good" in this case can be defined as "what you're used to." "Mr."
is an abbreviation; as such, we USians believe it needs a period.


"Jezebel" wrote in message
...
It might be normal. That doesn't make it good.


"Tony Jollans" My Forename at My Surname dot com wrote in message
...
I think this is a difference in English vs.American usage. In UK
English Mr (without the full stop) is good; in US English Mr.
(with the period) is normal.

--
Enjoy,
Tony


"Greg Maxey" wrote in message
...
While slightly off subject, what is superfluous about the period
following
"Mr" in my example? Are you saying that it isn't necessary and
that simply Mr will do or is it tied to your greater aversion to
abbreviations in general and that Mister should be used in the
example to avoid confusion?

--
Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.

Jezebel wrote:
Word's estimate of sentences is necessarily a somewhat fuzzy
piece of logic; abbreviations -- or superfluous periods, as in
your example -- are always going to be problematic.


"Greg Maxey" wrote in message
...
That doesn't work so well Jezebel.

Consider:

How did Mr. Smith get to Washington?

That is not two sentences.

--
Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.

Jezebel wrote:
It is VBA, but all it takes in a macro is

msgbox("Sentences = " & activedocument.Sentences.Count)




"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I suspected this might be available through the readability
statistics, but (short of VBA) there's no way to access those
without checking grammar, which is a huge PITA.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to
the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Greg Maxey" wrote in message
...
Look at readability statistics. ToolsOptionsSpelling and
Grammar and check Show readability statistics. Consider the
following: Did Mr. Smith go to Washington? I don't know
Mrs. Jones;
you will
have to
ask Mr. Smith.


ToolsSpelling and Grammar.

Words: 18
Characters: 71
Paragraphs: 1
Sentences: 2



--
Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.

Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
Does it? Word Count counts pages, words, characters (with
and without spaces), paragraphs, and lines, but not
sentences. But if Word tried to
count sentences, most users would not be satisfied because
it would have to
count anything ending in a period as a sentence, which is
what
it
does when
you use Ctrl+click to select a sentence, and this includes
the periods after
abbreviations.


"garfield-n-odie"
wrote in message
...
This feature already exists within Word, so there is no
need for you to suggest it to Microsoft.

Connor wrote:

When i do my weekly composition for seventh grade it has
to be a minimum
of
fifteen sentences. If the word count feature could count
sentences as
well, I
would not have to do it manually.

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