\showmakeup on \TeX\ shows a tSP:3.282 THK:-1.721 H__E X HK:-1.291 SP:3.282 I assume that SP stands for space. Correct me if I'm wrong After reading some of the manuals that mention \showmakeup with and without [spaces] and so forth, I couldn't find any more info related to this. If anyone can provide me more information as to what does HK means there? Anyhow If I were to have, say, a control _word_ such as \TeX\, the sequence of TeX kerning is thrown off. The only remedy would be to have a a \qquad preceding the control sequence e.g., {\qquad \TeX\ significantly} to sort of ameliorate this side-effect. But then again. Spacing is off. e.g., The separation of any of these four components would have hurt {\qquad\TeX\ significantly}. If I had not participated fully in But it's interesting that \showmakeup, kerning and spaces would display what's to be expected. And yet, the aformentioned set of tSP:3.282 THK:-1.721 H__E X HK:-1.291 SP:3.282 is accurate nevertheless. And a very nice implementation at that, but one I fear can't be included on a final document either. With that being said, the introduction of a \qquad, in addition to \showmakeup with, say, redundancy aside, whatever is preceding the \TeX\ alongside the file would also introduce a space where no space was ever there before. Because of all of this, and unfortunately, \showmakeup is not quite helpful here either. Although it does so displays the amount of spaces and so forth, any addition of a \qquad also adds a very subtle unwanted space. And since we're looking here, I pressume, solely for accuracy and perfection, we're left here with neither: zero, zip. It evaporates. -- Dear Emily: I'm still confused as to what groups articles should be posted to. How about an example? -- Still Confused Dear Still: Ok. Let's say you want to report that Gretzky has been traded from the Oilers to the Kings. Now right away you might think rec.sport.hockey would be enough. WRONG. Many more people might be interested. This is a big trade! Since it's a NEWS article, it belongs in the news.* hierarchy as well. If you are a news admin, or there is one on your machine, try news.admin. If not, use news.misc. The Oilers are probably interested in geology, so try sci.physics. He is a big star, so post to sci.astro, and sci.space because they are also interested in stars. Next, his name is Polish sounding. So post to soc.culture.polish. But that group doesn't exist, so cross-post to news.groups suggesting it should be created. With this many groups of interest, your article will be quite bizarre, so post to talk.bizarre as well. (And post to comp.std.mumps, since they hardly get any articles there, and a "comp" group will propagate your article further.) You may also find it is more fun to post the article once in each group. If you list all the newsgroups in the same article, some newsreaders will only show the article to the reader once! Don't tolerate this. -- Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette