@Jellby
The … ellipses character is preferred to using separate dots as per ..., no matter if spaced or not.
Punctuation in dialogue goes inside quotes “Are you going?”
Many UK publishers use single quotes for speech and most US double quotes. “I prefer double quotes for dialogue as it’s more visible and then single quotes for a ‘quote’ in that or something in narration needing quotes.”
I only use ' and " for feet and inches or minutes and seconds of degrees.
If dialogue has a paragraph break it can be still indented, but end of last paragraph has no ” (closing quote), though the fresh paragraph of same dialogue has.
In general if indents are used for paragraphs, don't space also. If an element is centred, then usually a following body text or preamble text has no first line indent, but may have extra initial line space.
Any kind of section break should be centred text, but it can be an invisible break by having increased top margin on a style for first paragraph section with invisible break.
Use styles.
I agree with everything else of Jellby, very clear.
Also I use marginalia rather than hyperlinked footnotes, because they turn into endnotes that may or may not navigate back.
[Like this, also alternate font face]
Also consistency is important. Always punctuate time the same way (there is more than one option).
See also Trask’s ‘The Penguin Guide to Punctuation’. Also legally free from his own University website.
About 1/3 of ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’ is on the apostrophe. Good on commas too.
Most books are poor on Dialogue Punctuation. Like what if tag is before the dialogue? Which are tags (so ,” never .) and what are actions (always .”)? The —, …, ! and ? ends of dialogue inside the quotes are the same for actions and tags.
Kate smiled ought to be an action, but it is usually used as a tag.
Then there is order: Kate said versus said Kate. Be consistent.
The – en is shorter than — em (width of n and m originally)
On Linux the Compose key is your friend, also AltGr does more on Linux and Windows US International Layout than Windows UK.
At end of dialogue the — em is interrupted speech and the … is trailing off speech (or a pause inside dialogue). So I use en – with spaces – as brackets, not em, but I think the comma is usually better. The 18th C to pre WWII UK uses the dashes a lot more. Be consistent.