CODING PUNCTUATION - PART TWO

Continuing with punctuation, we're going to deal with dashes and ellipses.

(Recall we have opened the html version of the book in Notepad++. If you've come in late, go back to CODING PUNCTUATION - PART ONE and catch up before proceeding. The exact sequence of events is very important. Also, please note these instructions are for American publication format, not British; so practice caution, why don't you.)

Search for

    --

    [space]–[space]

I use the smaller en dashes because they center up in any space Kindle sees fit to insert into my sentences. Experiment, if you want, with the larger em dashes (—) to see what they look like. I find they often latch onto words and refuse to let go, forcing all the "justification" space into the zones in front or in back of the clump. I don't care for that. (Print books have "thin spaces" available to cut dashes loose, you don't.)

Now, the thoroughly nasty world of ellipses (AKA suspension points).

There are rules that govern print books. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, ellipses are used to indicate missing text. If the remaining text is incomplete (a fragment), it is followed by a space, then three dots. Another space is used after the ellipsis if the text resumes. If the ellipsis follows a complete sentence, a period fills the space after the last word (four dots in a row).

Note that the CMS is talking about the treatment of text reproduced from some other published work, where unneeded words (or whole sentences) have been removed by the quoting author.

In fiction, the ellipsis is used to indicate an incomplete thought or a line of dialogue that trails off. You might also see an ellipsis separating fragments of narration, or between bits of dialogue where the speech is halting or drops away only to pick up again. Some authors avoid the four dot ellipsis, even when the sentence in front is complete.

To create an ellipsis, you could use this string of code:

     . . .

which is an alternating series of non-breaking spaces and periods.

There is also html code for a clump of three dots:

    …

Pick one for your book—don't mix and match.

In a Kindle, spaces (including non-breaking spaces) are stretched to fill out the line to the right side margin (justification). And that can look pretty strange. It also means that if the next line also contains a non-coded ellipsis (made using non-breaking spaces and periods), the spaces there might be larger or smaller than those in the ellipses above. Weird, right?

Using the code (…) guarantees a uniform ellipsis every time, but now the spaces between the word and the ellipsis and between the ellipsis and the next word can be very large, with a compact trio of dots in the middle. Frankly, I don't like the look of that.

So I prefer the constructed ellipsis to the coded one. Most of the time.

It depends on the line length, ellipsis position, and font size—where font size is not in our control. All in all, an ugly business.

To make matters more interesting, the so-called non-breaking space might actually break in a Kindle (though not in the browser you might use to test your progress).

Okay, let's begin the conversion process with ellipses that follow a complete sentence.

Search the file for

    ....

and Replace All with your chosen version of the ellipsis:

    . . . .

or

    ….

But be advised: At very large font sizes the period following the coded ellipsis (…) may be spaced differently than the other three dots.

Now search for

    ..."

and Replace All with either

     . . ."

or

     …"

Finally, search for all the other ellipses in your document:

    ...

and Replace All with either

    [space]. . .[space]

or

     …[space]

When the ellipsis occurs at the end of a paragraph, the end breaking space will be ignored.

When the ellipsis occurs between words, the end breaking space allows Kindle to bust off the rest of the sentence and put in on the next line—again, depending on the sentence length and font size.

In practice, how everything looks in your Kindle (or Kindle Previewer) should help you decide on one version of the ellipsis or the other.

In the end, it's all about proofreading.

And more proofreading.

Remember, as a self-pubbing indie author, you are the last line of defense for fixing EVERYTHING.

And now back to double quotes: All remaining DIALOGUE quote marks can be replaced with right-side double quotes.

WARNING: There are double straight quotes on your screen that are NOT part of the dialogue in your book. They occur in the <meta> section of code at the top of the page. You don't want to convert these guys—or if you accidentally do, you need to put them back the way they are now.

Here's how you handle this. First, you need to turn off "Wrap around" in the Find and Replace window. Then click in your document just after the <meta> section and before the <body> section.

Search for

    "

and Replace All with

    &rdquo;



Now turn "Wrap around" back on and take a peek at the <meta> section to make sure nothing bad happened there.

Last, we deal with single quotes—AKA apostrophes. Since you've already located and converted your left-side single quotes, the only ones left are right side quotes. Search for

    '

and Replace All with

    &rsquo;

This also fixes a bug in Word (or maybe it has already been fixed; my version is very old). When you change front-of-word contractions from straight to curly quotes, sometimes Word thinks it's beginning a quoted word or phrase and uses a left-side quote. The proper mark is a right single quote, identical to apostrophes used to form contractions.

Word also reverses double curly quotes following dashes, which is found in dialogue interrupted by another speaker. We've already handled those.

And that takes care of standard punctuation. Save the file and open it in a browser. I like to narrow the margin and increase the font size so I can get a good close look at the text and punctuation.

Just remember: Not everything that works in your browser will work in a Kindle e-book. It's probably too early to bother doing this now, but a little further down the road you'll want to open your html file in Kindle Previewer to see what your e-book really looks like. When the time comes, be sure to check multiple platforms and font sizes. Compromises may be necessary.

Next time we'll get into paragraph styles and some other stuff.