When you enter spaces between the hyphens, Word formats the hyphens as an en dash ( - ), which is shorter than an em dash. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. We use the em dash to create a strong break in the structure of a sentence. Use one em dash on each side of a phrase embedded in a sentence. Example The information in your spreadsheet—numbers, formulas, and text—is stored in cells. Em dashes differ from other hyphens and dashes not only in usage, which we will discuss shortly, but also in appearance. Wider still is the em-dash, which is just as wide as a lowercase m. The em-dash is typically used in sentences, such as a dash between clauses. If you are using a typewriter, a pair of hyphens is the closest you can get to an em dash. To insert an en-dash in your document, hold down the Alt key and type 0150 on the numeric keypad; an em-dash is produced by holding down the Alt key and typing 0151. How to Enter Hyphens, En Dashes and Em Dashes in HTML and Word. 01/19/2018; 2 minutes to read; In this article. It is a dash longer than an en dash (–) and three times as long as a hyphen (-). The em dash has another job. I know the keyboard shortcut for an em dash is Ctrl-Alt-Minus, but I used to be able to enter three of these as a keyboard shortcut for a 3-em dash, and Word would autoformat them to be seamless. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. When we hear the term dash, most of us picture the em dash.
The hyphen is easy enough to fin, since it’s right there near the top of your keyboard after the number zero. Alternatively, you can insert these special characters using the … When you need more of a separation between words and phrases, though, you’ll need either an en dash or an em dash, depending on the context. Which brings us to the em dash. It's twice as long as the en dash, and is used most often in a sentence to set apart two independent but related ideas. It is significantly longer than the hyphen. Wider still is the em-dash, which is just as wide as a lowercase m. The em-dash is typically used in sentences, such as a dash between clauses.
Don’t add spaces around an em dash. Note that this is only available using the hyphen on the numeric keypad not the main keyboard. The En Dash. Otherwise, look for an “insert symbol” command. Typically, two em dashes represent the absence of one or more letters in a word. The length of an em dash comes from width of a traditional typesetter’s capital letter M—that’s how the dash gets its name. What Is an Em Dash?
It seems to be inserting an en dash regardless of whether you wrap a single or a double hyphen within spaces. On Microsoft Word (and most other word processing systems), when you put two dashes next to each other (–), they combine to form an em dash. An en dash serves the purpose of a hyphen when one of the things you’re joining includes more than one word. This format is often used in bibliographies when citing multiple works by the same author. Use an em dash (—) to set off a parenthetical phrase with more emphasis than parentheses provide. The em dash can be made in Microsoft Word by pressing CTRL + ALT + the minus sign -, located on the keypad. (And yes, the en dash is named because it’s the width of the letter n.). Thank you. How To Use An Em Dash (—) An em dash, or long dash, is used: in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence: Thousands of children—like the girl in this photograph—have been left homeless.
If you’re using a word processor, like Microsoft Word, you can also type double hyphens next to each other to produce an em dash. This thread is locked. As you can see, it works here; but in Word, the 2-em dash comes out with em dashes with a space in the middle (— —), and in a 3-em dash (— — —).
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