Write dash in word

Inserting an em or en dash using Ctrl and keyboard shortcuts. To insert an em dash, click where you want to insert the em dash and then press Ctrl + Alt + – (minus sign on the numeric keypad). To insert an en dash, click where you want to insert the en dash and then press Ctrl + – (minus sign on the numeric keypad).

How do you type a long dash?

To make an em dash, press and hold Alt, then type 0151.

How do I type a dash symbol?

Hold down the Alt key, press 0 1 5 0 on the numeric pad, and then release the Alt key. The en dash will appear in the text field where your cursor is. Write an em dash. Hold down the Alt key, press 0 1 5 1 on the numeric pad, and then release the Alt key.

How do I make automatic dashes in Word?

Use Word’s automatic hyphenation option to present your clients with a visually appealing document that displays evenly spaced words.

1. Click the “Page Layout” tab and locate the Page Setup section.
2. Click “Hyphenation” and then “Automatic.” The document text is hyphenated.

How do you type a dash in Windows?

Windows

1. For an em-dash, hold down the Alt key and type 0151, then release the Alt key. That’s it!
2. For an en-dash, hold down the Alt key and type 0150, then release the Alt key. Pretty simple, right?

How do I type an em dash in Windows 10?

How to type an em dash on Windows

1. Hold the Alt key.
2. Now type “0151” on the num pad.
3. A clunkier method, but one that works with any keyboard, is to use the Windows 10 emoji keyboard.
4. Click the right-most tab with the omega (Ω) symbol on it.
5. Scroll down until you find the em dash symbol (—).

How do you write dashes?

To form a dash, type two hyphens—without a space before, after, or between them—and your word processor will convert them to a dash. You make a dash by hitting the hyphen key twice. The hyphen key is next to the +/= key on your keyboard (the same key with the underscore _ ).

How do you type an upper dash?

less simple: you need to use an alt code to get an em dash. If you have a numeric keyboard, hold down the Alt key and type 0151 for an em dash or 0150 for an en dash.

How do I change dashes to dashes in Word?

Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+-. You must use the minus sign (-) on the numeric keypad; if you use the hyphen character on the alphanumeric keypad, Word will change the cursor. Hold down the [Alt] key and type 0151 on the numeric keypad.

How do you automatically make two hyphens into a dash?

Insert an Em dash using AutoFormat

1. Type a word, with no space after it.
2. Type two hyphens, with no space between or after them.
3. Type another word.
4. Type a space.

Insert a header or footer

1. Go to Insert > Header or Footer.
2. Choose the header style you want to use. Tip: Some built-in header and footer designs include page numbers.
3. Add or change text for the header or footer.
4. Select Close Header and Footer or press Esc to exit.

How do you make an em dash in Google Docs?

Click on your document where you want to insert the dash, open the “Insert” menu, and then click “Special Characters.” After the tool opens, type “em dash” or “en dash” into the search bar and then click the symbol from the results on the left. Note: Several types of en and em dashes show up in the search results.

What is a dash punctuation examples?

Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation, such as the commas after Iowa and 2020 in the following examples: Without dash: The man from Ames, Iowa, arrived. With dash: The man—he was from Ames, Iowa—arrived. Without dash: The May 1, 2020, edition of the Ames Sentinel arrived in June.

How do you use dashes in an essay?

To set off material for emphasis.
Think of dashes as the opposite of parentheses. Where parentheses indicate that the reader should put less emphasis on the enclosed material, dashes indicate that the reader should pay more attention to the material between the dashes.

How do you use dashes in dialogue?

The main things to remember are: Use an em dash if the speaker stops mid-word, in the same way as you’d use a hyphen. Put it inside the closing quotation marks. Use an em dash if the speaker’s able to complete a word, but someone or something stops them before they finish their thought.

How do you use dashes in parentheses?

If you want to draw attention to the parenthetical content, use dashes. If you want to include the parenthetical content more subtly, use parentheses. Note that when dashes are used in place of parentheses, surrounding punctuation should be omitted. Compare the following examples.

How do you use two dashes in a sentence?

Double dashes are used instead of commas (or parentheses) to interrupt a sentence. The phrase separated by dashes must be grammatically inessential, by which I simply mean that the sentence will still work without that phrase.

Insert an Em or En Dash in Microsoft Word using the Ribbon or Keyboard Shortcuts

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated March 3, 2023

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

You can insert an em dash or en dash in a Microsoft Word document using the Insert Symbol command or by using keyboard shortcuts. An em dash is a long dash which is the width of the letter m. An en dash is the width of the letter n.

The dashes appear as follows:

• Em dash (—)
• En dash (–)
• Dash or hyphen (-)

Recommended article: How to Keep Text Together in Microsoft Word

1. Insert an em or en dash using Insert Symbol

You can use the Insert Symbol command to insert special characters in Word documents.

To insert an em or en dash using Insert Symbol:

1. Click where you want to insert the em dash or en dash.
2. Click the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
3. In the Symbols group, click Symbol. A drop-down menu appears.
4. Click More Symbols. A dialog box appears. In Word, there are two tabs at the top of the dialog box.
5. Click the Special Characters tab.
6. Click Em Dash or En Dash.
7. Click Insert.
8. Click Close.

Below is the Insert Symbol dialog box in Word:

2. Insert an em or en dash using Ctrl and keyboard shortcuts

To insert an em dash, click where you want to insert the em dash and then press Ctrl + Alt + – (minus sign on the numeric keypad).

To insert an en dash, click where you want to insert the en dash and then press Ctrl + – (minus sign on the numeric keypad).

If this doesn’t work, press NumLock on the numeric keypad.

3. Insert an em or en dash using AutoFormat as you type

There are built-in options that are turned on by default in AutoCorrect in the AutoFormat as you type settings.

To insert an em dash using AutoFormat as you type:

1. Type a word with no space after it.
2. Type two dashes or hyphens with no space between or after them.
3. Type another word.
4. Press the Spacebar.

To insert an en dash using AutoFormat as you type:

1. Type a word.
2. Press the Spacebar.
3. Type a single dash or hyphen.
4. Press the spacebar.
5. Type another word.
6. Press the Spacebar.

4. Insert an em or en dash using Alt and keyboard shortcuts

You can also use the Alt key in combination with a sequence of numbers of insert an em dash or en dash.

To insert an em dash, click where you want to insert the em dash and then press and hold Alt and then type 8212 on the numeric keypad.

To insert an en dash, click where you want to insert the en dash and then press and hold Alt and then type 8211 on the numeric keypad.

If this doesn’t work, press NumLock on the numeric keypad.

The Alt keyboard shortcuts will work in multiple programs but the other shortcuts will work only in Microsoft Word.

This article was first published on July 22, 2020 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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En and em dashes are often mistakenly entered with two or three hyphens in a row (— or
—). We strongly recommend avoiding using hyphens in Word; see below how to insert them
to create your perfect document.

Using an em dash

The em dash marks a break between parts of a sentence. Usually, it is used when a comma is too
weak, but a colon, semicolon, or parentheses pair is too strong. The em dash puts a nice pause in the
text—and it is underused in professional writing.

For example: In North American usage—and also in old British usage—an em dash is never
surrounded by spaces.

To insert the em dash into a document Word, use one of the following ways:

• On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, select the Symbol button, and then click More Symbols…:

  

  In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, choose the Em Dash:

  

  After choosing the symbol, press the Insert button and close the Symbol dialog box.

• Press Alt+Ctrl+Num-
• Type 2014 and press Alt+X: —

Using an en dash

The en dash has two uses:

• It indicates a range of values. For example, 2015–2020, pp. 33–37, Rooms A–C.
• It denotes a connection or contrast between pairs of words — for example, New York–London flight, high–priority, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening.

To insert the en dash into a document Word, do one of the following:

• On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, select the Symbol button, and then click More Symbols…:

  

  In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, choose the En Dash:

  

  After choosing the symbol, press the Insert button and close the Symbol dialog box.

• Press Ctrl+Num-
• Type 2013 and press Alt+X: –

Note: Word has one option, using which two hyphens — can be changed automatically to an en dash. You can turn it in or off:

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

   2.   In the Word Options dialog box, on the
Proofing tab, click the AutoCorrect Options… button:

   3.   In the AutoCorrect dialog box, on the AutoFormat As You Type tab, in the Replace as you type group, check or uncheck Hyphens (—) with dash (—) to turn on or off this option:

Many people like to write, they make a living from it and use the Word text editor of the Office suite as their preferred tool for this task. But for those who are used to writing scripts, they will be able to verify that entering scripts can become torture. And we must know when to write each one of them and how to make or write the short dash and long dash in Word with the keyboard. 

Believe it or not there is a very marked difference between these two scripts, the long script is used in a general way to mark the intervention of the actors in a play and the short script is generally used to divide words as in the case of Franco-Hispanic .

So we will show you a simple way to make or write the short dash and long dash in Word with the keyboard. Our intention is to make your life easier with these types of tutorials and you can find in them a function that allows you to write these scripts automatically.

And for this you just have to follow the instructions that we will indicate, it is very easy to do as well as insert an emojis, a musical symbol or a weight or currency sign .

How to make or write the short dash and the long dash in Word with the keyboard

Next we will show you several options that you have to enter, make or write both the short and the long script, it is similar to the ones we use to put accents or accents . To start this tutorial we will start with this first method which consists of going to the main menu and in it we will select the Insert tab. Once this is done, we will be located on the right side of the toolbar.

And we are going to click on the Symbols option, then we will choose the Symbol option again and then on the More symbols option. The window will open and in it we will see two tabs and select the Special Characters tab. Here you will see a series of characters and symbols and among them at the top of the list you will find the long dash and the short dash.

Choose the one you need for your document and then go down to the bottom of the Symbol window and choose the Insert option. Once you have done this, the script you have chosen will appear automatically in the document you are creating. As you can see, this is a great way to hyphenate your text.

Another method to make or write the short dash and long dash in Word with the keyboard

Now we will show you another method with which to   make or write the short dash and long dash in Word with the keyboard. And it is precisely by making use of the keyboard shortcuts and you only have to know what combination of keys you should use so that the script is written in the text. Whether this is the one you need or the short dash or the long dash.

As you know, Word allows you to insert different characters and special symbols through keyboard shortcuts . If you want to enter the long dash, you must press the following key combination Ctrl + Alt + (-) the sign of the long dash will appear only when you press the one that appears on the numeric keyboard, otherwise this key combination will not work.

In order for you to write the short dash, you should not make any combination of keys for it, you just have to press the short dash key that is shown on your alphanumeric keyboard . Try to locate it on your keyboard, which is generally under the letter Ñ. it is always important that you become familiar with your keyboard and know where to find each special character.

And so in this simple way, we have taught you what the two types of scripts that you can write or include in your text are used for, and the steps you must take to be able to   make or write the short script and the long script in Word with keyboard.

One of the features to highlight certain content on Word or Excel is the hyphen. With this dash, the viewer will easily identify that content incorrectly.

In order to help users to customize the content of documents, create accents for text, attract readers, on Word or Excel have available features to reformat fonts, create artistic text. In there are features to create dash on Word or Excel.

Using this hyphen is usually used in case you want to highlight content, the data is not correct for others to know. The following article will show you how to create dash in Word, Excel and remove text in existing documents.

1. Instructions for transferring PDF files to Word are free of Vietnamese errors
2. Create a quick dot (……………) line in Microsoft Word
3. Enter the serial number and the automatic initial character MS Word

1. Strike out words in Word:

Step 1:

In Word text interface, we highlight text or paragraphs that need a dash. Then click on the extension icon of the Font section in the interface above.

Or we can right-click on the content and select the Font item in the list that appears.

Step 2:

The Font dialog box appears with various font formatting options. If you look down at Effects, there will be 2 custom text hyphens, including Strikethrough, for a one-time hyphen and Double strikethrough twice.

We can preview the text using the dash at the Preview frame below. Finally click OK to save this format for content.

Such documents after formatting the dash will look like the image below. To remove the dash, perform the above operation and remove the checkmark in the previously selected dash format.

2. Strikethrough in Excel:

Step 1:

At the content of the document to be processed, black out text or paragraphs of text need to format dash. Then click on the expanded icon in the Font section . Or we can right-click and select the Font the way we do it in Word.

Step 2:

The Interface Cells dialog box appears. The user clicks on the Font tab , looks down at the Effects section and also selects Strikethrough to dash from.

We will see the Preview text section is horizontal after being applied. Click OK to save the new changes.

The end result Excel content is also crossed out as shown below.

Add a way to format data in Word content or tables on Excel. With dashing this word, it is easier to mark content or want to notify others of incorrect content. For documents that have a dash added to the text, to remove us, perform the same operations and uncheck the option at the hyphen.

Video tutorial to create dash on Word, Excel

I wish you all success!

In order to help users to customize the content of documents, create accents for text, attract readers, on Word or Excel have available features to reformat fonts, create artistic text. In there are features to create dash on Word or Excel.

Using this hyphen is usually used in case you want to highlight content, the data is not correct for others to know. The following article will show you how to create dash in Word, Excel and remove text in existing documents.

1. Instructions for transferring PDF files to Word are free of Vietnamese errors
2. Create a quick dot (……………) line in Microsoft Word
3. Enter the serial number and the automatic initial character MS Word

1. Strike out words in Word:

Step 1:

In Word text interface, we highlight text or paragraphs that need a dash. Then click on the extension icon of the Font section in the interface above.

Or we can right-click on the content and select the Font item in the list that appears.

Step 2:

The Font dialog box appears with various font formatting options. If you look down at Effects, there will be 2 custom text hyphens, including Strikethrough, for a one-time hyphen and Double strikethrough twice.

We can preview the text using the dash at the Preview frame below. Finally click OK to save this format for content.

Such documents after formatting the dash will look like the image below. To remove the dash, perform the above operation and remove the checkmark in the previously selected dash format.

2. Strikethrough in Excel:

Step 1:

At the content of the document to be processed, black out text or paragraphs of text need to format dash. Then click on the expanded icon in the Font section . Or we can right-click and select the Font the way we do it in Word.

Step 2:

The Interface Cells dialog box appears. The user clicks on the Font tab , looks down at the Effects section and also selects Strikethrough to dash from.

We will see the Preview text section is horizontal after being applied. Click OK to save the new changes.

The end result Excel content is also crossed out as shown below.

Add a way to format data in Word content or tables on Excel. With dashing this word, it is easier to mark content or want to notify others of incorrect content. For documents that have a dash added to the text, to remove us, perform the same operations and uncheck the option at the hyphen.

Video tutorial to create dash on Word, Excel

I wish you all success!

Is this article up to date?

We have many small interpolations in Word. In English we call them Hyphen and Dash. Even those who uses Microsoft Word for long time also use these hyphens and dashes in wrong ways. Let us explore more on how to use proper hyphens and dashes in Word.

Related: How to insert dividers in Word?

Hyphen and Dash

Word gives us three types of hyphens and two types of dashes. Knowing the difference between them can help you to make use of them in a better way. You can find them by going to “Insert > Symbol > More Symbols” section under “Special Characters” tab.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Hyphens and Dashes

As you can see in the symbol dialog, you can type hyphens and dashes using keyboard shortcuts.

Num indicates you should use the keys from the number pad after enabling number lock on your keyboard.

Let us see how to use these hyphens and dashes when typing documents in Word.

1. Regular Hyphens

You can type this hyphen with the regular hyphen key. This hyphen is available between 0 and = keys on the top number row of a standard keyboard layout. Some people mistakenly use it as a dash key. You can use regular hyphen when typing compound words in English. For example, long-term and short-term are hyphenated compound words using regular hyphens.

When a hyphenated compound word comes at the end of a line, Word will keep the first word and hyphen in the same line and move the second word to the next line. However, you have to apply regular hyphens on the words manually or as per the spelling check suggestions.

2. Optional Hyphen or Soft Hyphen

Optional or soft hyphen is an invisible symbol that you cannot see. Word sometime misinterpret jargons and non-standard words and apply wrong hyphenation when the word falls at the end of the line. This can cut the word in a wrong place and affect the readability. In order to avoid this, you can manually apply optional hyphen to show it correctly.

Related: How to insert emoji in Microsoft Word?

You can type optional hyphen by pressing Control + Regular Hyphen keys. However, you can view the optional hyphens only with hyphenation tool enabled in Word. If you enable hyp­henation tool, Word will automati­­cally apply optional hyphens for those words at the end of each line. The optional hyphen will get printed only if you apply manually.

 3. Non-breaking Hyphens

Non-breaking hyphens work opposite way to optional hyphens and avoid breaking a hyphenated word. When a long hyphenated phrase comes at the end of sentence, Word will break the phrase and show half in next line. Word works this default way and you can stop breaking the phrase by applying non-breaking hyphens. Press control + shift and the hyphen key to apply non-breaking hyphen and move the entire hyphenated word to next sentence.

4. En Dash

This is a symbol for typing dash. It is named as it occupies the space like the letter n. It is commonly used to write a number range like 3–7. In order to use this dash sign you have to press control and – key in the numeric keypad. Alternatively, you can use alt with numeric keys 0150. When a range with en dash falls at the end of a sentence, Word will split the number after the en dash to next line. This means en dash is visible always with the preceding number.

5. Em Dash

It is called em dash because it occupies the space like letter “m”. However, this may vary based on your font settings. Usually it will be looking double size than en dash. You can use em dash in connecting two different sentences that have different meanings. You can type em dash by pressing control, alt keys and – in the numeric pad. Alternatively, press the alt key and then type 0151 on numeric keypad. Similar to en dash, Word will always split the word preceding the em dash to next line.