Hard space in word

Word does offer this feature, but it calls them «nonbreaking» spaces. To type a nonbreaking space, press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar. If the key combination slips your mind, choose Insert » Symbol, click the Special Characters tab, and look for the «Nonbreaking Space» item.

Word also offers nonbreaking hyphens, which you can insert by pressing Ctrl+_ (that’s Ctrl and the underscore key).

Nonbreaking spaces appear as normal spaces unless you display all punctuation marks (click the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar) or display spaces (choose Tools » Options, click the View tab, and check the Spaces box). Spaces then appear as dots, and nonbreaking spaces appear as degree symbols (see Figure 3-9).

Figure 3-9. Use nonbreaking or «hard» spaces to keep words together. Nonbreaking spaces appear as degree symbols when you have spaces displayed.

by updated Sep 03, 2017

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

«⍽» redirects here. Not to be confused with ␣ or ⌴.

For Wikipedia’s related guideline, see MOS:NBSP.

Nonbreaking space
U+00A0   NO-BREAK SPACE ( ,  )
See also
U+202F   NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE U+0020   SPACE (Note: Representations here of a regular space are replaced with a no-break space) Other types of spaces

In word processing and digital typesetting, a nonbreaking space,  , also called NBSP, required space,^[1] hard space, or fixed space (though it is not of fixed width), is a space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position. In some formats, including HTML, it also prevents consecutive whitespace characters from collapsing into a single space.

Nonbreaking space characters with other widths also exist.

Uses and variations[edit]

Despite having layout and uses similar to those of whitespace, it differs in contextual behavior.^[2][3]

Nonbreaking behavior[edit]

Text-processing software typically assumes that an automatic line break may be inserted anywhere a space character occurs; a nonbreaking space prevents this from happening (provided the software recognizes the character). For example, if the text «100 km» will not quite fit at the end of a line, the software may insert a line break between «100» and «km». An editor who finds this behavior undesirable may choose to use a nonbreaking space between «100» and «km». This guarantees that the text «100 km» will not be broken: if it does not fit at the end of a line, it is moved in its entirety to the next line.

Noncollapsing behavior[edit]

A second common application of nonbreaking spaces is in plain text file formats such as SGML, HTML, TeX and LaTeX, whose rendering engines are programmed to treat sequences of whitespace characters (space, newline, tab, form feed, etc.) as if they were a single character (but this behavior can be overridden). Such «collapsing» of whitespace allows the author to neatly arrange the source text using line breaks, indentation and other forms of spacing without affecting the final typeset result.^[4][5]

In contrast, nonbreaking spaces are not merged with neighboring whitespace characters when displayed and can therefore be used by an author to simply insert additional visible space in the resulting output without using spans styled with peculiar values of the CSS «white-space» property. Conversely, indiscriminate use (see the recommended use in style guides), in addition to a normal space, gives extraneous space in the output.

Width variation[edit]

Other nonbreaking variants, defined in Unicode:

U+202F   NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (NNBSP)

Due to the tighter binding of value and unit as a continuous visual element NNBSP is recommended for usage in the SI-standard.^[6] It was introduced in Unicode 3.0 for Mongolian,^[7] to separate a suffix^[8] from the word stem without indicating a word boundary. It is also required for big punctuation in French where it is called espace fine insécable and sometimes inaccurately referred to as «double punctuation» (before ;, ?, !, », › and after «, ‹; today often also before :) and in German between multi-part abbreviations (e.g. «z. B.«, «d. h.«, «v. l. n. r.«).^[9] When used with Mongolian, its width is usually one third of the normal space; in other contexts, its width is about 70% of the normal space but may resemble that of the thin space (U+2009), at least with some fonts.^[10] Also starting from release 34 of Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) the NNBSP is used in numbers as thousands group separator for French and Spanish locale.^[11][12]

U+2007   FIGURE SPACE ( )

Produces a space equal to the figure (0–9) characters.

U+2060 WORD JOINER (⁠ · WJ)

Encoded in Unicode since version 3.2. The word-joiner does not produce any space and prohibits a line break at its position.

Example[edit]

On browsers, resizing the window will demonstrate the effect of nonbreaking spaces on the texts below.

To show the nonbreaking effect of the nonbreaking space, the following words have been separated with nonbreaking spaces:

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipiscing Elit Sed Do Eiusmod Tempor Incididunt Ut Labore Et Dolore Magna Aliqua Ut Enim Ad Minim Veniam Quis Nostrud Exercitation Ullamco Laboris Nisi Ut Aliquip Ex Ea Commodo Consequat Duis Aute

To show the noncollapsing behavior of the nonbreaking space, the following words have been separated with an increasing number of nonbreaking spaces:

Lorem Ipsum  Dolor   Sit    Amet     Consectetur      Adipiscing       Elit        Sed         Do          Eiusmod           Tempor            Incididunt             Ut              Labore               Et                Dolore                 Magna                  Aliqua                   Ut                    Enim                     Ad                      Minim

In contrast, the following words are separated with ordinary spaces:

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipiscing Elit Sed Do Eiusmod Tempor Incididunt Ut Labore Et Dolore Magna Aliqua Ut Enim Ad Minim Veniam Quis Nostrud Exercitation Ullamco Laboris Nisi Ut Aliquip Ex Ea Commodo Consequat Duis Aute

Encodings[edit]

Character information

Preview				⁠
Unicode name	NO-BREAK SPACE	FIGURE SPACE	NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE	WORD JOINER
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	160	U+00A0	8199	U+2007	8239	U+202F	8288	U+2060
UTF-8	194 160	C2 A0	226 128 135	E2 80 87	226 128 175	E2 80 AF	226 129 160	E2 81 A0
Numeric character reference							⁠	⁠
Named character reference	 ,  	 		⁠
ISO/IEC 8859 (1–16) / ECMA-94	160	A0
Windows code pages: 1250, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1254, 1255, 1256, 1257, 1258	160	A0
KOI8-R, KOI8-U	154	9A
DOS code pages: 437, 850, 851, 852, 853, 855, 856, 857, 858, 859, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865, 866, 867, 869	255	FF
HP Roman-8, HP Roman-9	160	A0
LICS	154	9A
TeX	~		,
EBCDIC	hex: 41 – RSP, Required Space

In Unicode, the Byte order mark (BOM), U+FEFF, may be interpreted as a «zero width no-break space», but is a deprecated alternative to word joiner (U+2060).

Keyboard entry methods[edit]

It is rare for national or international standards on keyboard layouts to define an input method for the nonbreaking space. An exception is the Finnish multilingual keyboard, accepted as the national standard SFS 5966 in 2008. According to SFS 5966, the nonbreaking space can be entered with the key combination AltGr + Space.^[13]

Typically, authors of keyboard drivers and application programs (e.g., word processors) have devised their own keyboard shortcuts for the nonbreaking space. For example:

System/application	Entry method
Microsoft Windows	Alt+0160 or Alt+255 (does not always work)
macOS	⌥ Opt+Space
Linux or Unix using X11	Compose, Space, Space or AltGr+Space
AmigaOS	Alt+Space
GNU Emacs	Ctrl+X 8 Space
Vim	Ctrl+K, Space, Space; or Ctrl+K, ⇧ Shift+N, ⇧ Shift+S
Dreamweaver, LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org (since 3.0), AutoCAD	Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Space[note 1]
FrameMaker, LyX (non-Mac), OpenOffice.org (before 3.0), WordPerfect	Ctrl+Space
Mac Adobe InDesign	⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+X
Python programming language	'N{NO-BREAK SPACE}'[14]

Apart from this, applications and environments often have methods of entering unicode entities directly via their code point, e.g. via the Alt Numpad input method. (Nonbreaking space has code point 255 decimal (FF hex) in codepage 437 and codepage 850 and code point 160 decimal (A0 hex) in codepage 1252.)

See also[edit]

• Hyphens in computing, for information about hard and nonbreaking hyphens
• List of XML and HTML character entity references
• Nonbreaking hyphen – Punctuation mark used to join words
• Punctuation – System of rules of grammar of written languages, typically not expressed verbally
• Plenken – Typographical error in German (language)
• Sentence spacing in digital media – Horizontal width of inter-sentence space
• Space (punctuation) – Blank area that separates text
  • Space (punctuation) § Nonbreaking space, for applications
  • Zero-width space – Special character in text processing, a nonspacing break
• Widows and orphans – In typography, an isolated word on a line
• Non-printing character in word processors – Formatting marks for content design
• Typographic alignment § Justified

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Updated: 12/31/2020 by

Alternatively called a fixed space or hard space, NBSP (non-breaking space) is used in programming and word processing to create a space in a line that cannot be broken by word wrap. With HTML,   lets you create multiple spaces that are visible on a web page and not only in the source code.

Creating a fixed space in a word processor and other programs

To create a fixed or hard space in a word processor such as Microsoft Office or LibreOffice, use one of the keyboard shortcuts below.

Microsoft Windows

Ctrl+Alt+Spacebar, or Ctrl+Spacebar.

Or, hold down Alt and press 0160 or 255 on the num pad.

macOS

Option+Spacebar.

Microsoft Word

Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar.

WordPerfect

Ctrl+Spacebar.

LibreOffice

Ctrl+Spacebar (before 3.0) or Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar (after 3.0).

Creating an NBSP in HTML

An example of how a user may insert an NBSP in HTML would be by adding the below extended HTML tag.

 

or

With the examples above, using this tag would allow you to create multiple spaces in a row, something that cannot be done by only pressing the Spacebar. To create multiple spaces, add one of the above non-breaking space tags for each time you want an extra space. For example, if you wanted ten extra spaces in front of text you could add ten of these tags.

Tip

If you need to indent or add extra spacing to a paragraph, sentence, or another portion of your web page, we suggest using CSS instead of multiple non-breaking spaces. You can also use the <pre> tag.

Null character, Programming terms, Spacebar

Insert a Nonbreaking Space in Word to Keep Words or Characters Together

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated October 11, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 365 (Windows)

If you want to keep words or characters together on the same line in a Word document, you can insert nonbreaking spaces. Nonbreaking spaces can be inserted using the Insert Symbol dialog box or a keyboard shortcut.

Recommended article: 14 Timesaving Microsoft Word Selection Shortcuts to Quickly Select Text

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or in-person classroom Word courses >

Note: We are using a US keyboard layout but the strategies and shortcuts apply to English Canada keyboards. Keyboard shortcuts may work differently depending on your keyboard layout / language.

Inserting a nonbreaking space using a keyboard shortcut

To insert a nonbreaking space between two words or characters using a keyboard shortcut:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar. Word inserts a nonbreaking space.

Inserting a nonbreaking space using Insert Symbol

To insert a nonbreaking space between two words or letters using Insert Symbol:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Click the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
3. In the Symbols group, click Insert Symbol and then More Symbols in the drop-down menu. A dialog box appears.
4. Select the Special Characters tab.
5. Select Nonbreaking space and click Insert.
6. Click Close. Word inserts a nonbreaking space.

Below is the Insert Symbol dialog box with Nonbreaking Space selected:

You can also insert several other special characters using Insert Symbol.

Viewing nonbreaking spaces

To view nonbreaking spaces and other nonprinting characters:

1. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
2. Click Show/Hide ¶ on the Home tab in the Ribbon in the Paragraph group. Nonbreaking spaces display as circles but do not print.
3. Click Show/Hide ¶ again to hide nonprinting characters.

Nonbreaking spaces can be extremely useful in Word to keep phone numbers together or specific characters that should be kept together on the same line.

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To show non-printable and white-space symbols in Microsoft Word, click the button button Show/Hide ¶ (or pressing Ctrl+* or Ctrl+Shift+8):

You will be able to see the following marks for white-space characters:

   1)   A little dot between words represents a normal space (also called word space):

   2)   A degree symbols between word represents a nonbreaking space (also called non-breaking space, no-break space, non-breakable space (NBSP), hard space, or fixed space) that prevents text wrapping at the end of the line. A Nonbreaking space in the Word document looks like:

A general rule of publishing is to use non-breaking spaces between words of
organization and person names, postal addresses, etc.

Some popular rules:

   3)   A little dot with varying gaps before and after the dot represents Em Space and En Space. These spaces have different widths on printing:

• Em space is a space with the width of the lowercase m character.
• En space is a space with the width of the lowercase n character.

   4)   A vertical bar between words represents a ¼ Em space (also known as mid-space) is a space with the ¼ width of the lowercase m character:

If you want to see only space marks and no other non-printable symbols, do the following:

   1.   On the File tab, click the Options button:

   2.   In the Word Options dialog box, on the Display tab, under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, check or uncheck the Spaces option:

See also this tip in French:
Types d’espaces spéciaux dans les documents Word.