Word always automatically inserts a space in between the last word of my
sentences and punctuation symbols, particularly question marks and
exclamation points. I think I have triggered a shortcut key that turned this
on and for the life of me I cannot turn it off.

Example: "Do you like this ?"
Should be: "Do you like this?"

Any ideas? I don't even know what to call this issue so I haven't been able
to find any helpful solutions.

It is normal to have a space before punctuation in certain
European languages, so the problem may be that Word thinks your
text is a different language than you think it is. Open a Word
document in which this problem occurs. Press Ctrl+A to select
all of the text. Click on Tools | Language | Set Language |
choose your language | uncheck the "Detect language
automatically" and "Do not check spelling or grammar" boxes |
Default | OK.

DianaY wrote:

Word always automatically inserts a space in between the last word of my
sentences and punctuation symbols, particularly question marks and
exclamation points. I think I have triggered a shortcut key that turned this
on and for the life of me I cannot turn it off.

Example: "Do you like this ?"
Should be: "Do you like this?"

Any ideas? I don't even know what to call this issue so I haven't been able
to find any helpful solutions.

Thank you. That solved the problem. Indeed, I type in French a lot and I
suspected that Word had automatically decided to change my punctuation for
that reason, but I didn't know how to fix it.

"garfield-n-odie [MVP]" wrote:

It is normal to have a space before punctuation in certain
European languages, so the problem may be that Word thinks your
text is a different language than you think it is. Open a Word
document in which this problem occurs. Press Ctrl+A to select
all of the text. Click on Tools | Language | Set Language |
choose your language | uncheck the "Detect language
automatically" and "Do not check spelling or grammar" boxes |
Default | OK.

DianaY wrote:

Word always automatically inserts a space in between the last word of my
sentences and punctuation symbols, particularly question marks and
exclamation points. I think I have triggered a shortcut key that turned this
on and for the life of me I cannot turn it off.

Example: "Do you like this ?"
Should be: "Do you like this?"

Any ideas? I don't even know what to call this issue so I haven't been able
to find any helpful solutions.