Staying Together: As Simple as a Non-Breaking Space

"I just need some space"...why do guys often take such offense to this statement? Sometimes all I'm asking for is some simple non-breaking space. Did I say "I never want to see you again? NoOOOOooo....well, while I work on that lets talk about a kind of space that we can all get.

A non-breaking space is a special character you can insert between text you don't want split on two lines.I've seen all kinds of word-processing acrobatics in effort to keep a date, a name or a special phrase on the same line - which is, of course, futile as it won't stick from one computer to the next. But why go through all that when simple brute force will do? Here's how:

• Word: Ctrl + Shift keys as you press the Spacebar
• WordPerfect and OpenOffice: Ctrl as you press the Spacebar
• MacOS: Option as you press the Spacebar

Want to know more? Can you believe there's even a Wikipedia entry about the NBS? I can think of one grammar nerd (at least he's cute) who will really like this page.