Expert: Mahesh - 3/27/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi.  I have Word 2000.  I edit an events diary, and often use hyphens (-) to separate sentences.  Sometimes Word automatically lengthens hyphens once they've been typed in, and sometimes it doesn't.  I always want short hyphens because of space considerations.  Is there either a way I can stop Word trying to be helpful and change short hyphens to long ones, or a set of keystrokes that will ensure I always get a short hyphen?

Many thanks

ANSWER: Hi Keith,

This might be happening because you have one of the autocorrect options ON for MSWord.  Go to Tools - Autocorrect menu.  There you will have an option (following a list of autocorrect instances), which says "Replace as you type".  Make sure you deselect this option.  This will avoid any kind of autocorrections in your document.

Hint:  If you do not want your words to break across to the next line, but you still need a hyphen between them, you can insert a non-breaking hyphen.  This hyphen, looks like a normal small hyphen (like a minus sign), but is coded.  This will not allow words adjacent to it to separate or flow to the next line.  You can insert this by hitting Ctrl + Shift + hyphen (normal hyphen).  Make sure when you insert a non-breaking hyphen, there are no spaces on both sides of this hyphen.

Hope this helps.

- Mahesh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Mahesh, thank you for your reply.
I'd really rather not switch off "replace as you type" - I am of rather mature years and I find this a very helpful facility.
I have realised that the "hyphen" character on the keyboard is also the "minus" character.  So I wonder if there is any way to set it so it always shows as "minus" rather than hyphen, which would suit my purposes at all times.

Best wishes, Keith

ANSWER: Try this:

Tools -> Autocorrect -> Autoformat tab
Chcek off the option "Symbol characters (--) with symbols (—).

Tools -> Autocorrect -> Autoformat as you type tab
Chcek off the option "Hyphens (--) with dash (—).

Let me know if this helps.

- Mahesh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes Mahesh, that's done it I think.  I can't be absolutely sure yet because it used to happen some times but not others!  However, in a quick trial it seems OK.
I've also realised that I can use find and replace to change long dashes into short ones, by copy and pasting a long dash into find and a short dash into paste.
Many thanks for your help, Keith

Answer
Cool!

Just to help you out:

Normal hyphen:  hit minus sign on numeric keypad or hyphen on the alpha keypad

Non-breaking hyphen:  Used to join two adjacent words (without spaces between them and avoiding to break on the next line).  Hit Ctrl + Shift + Hyphen (on the alpha key pad).

slight long dash (called en dash):  Hit Alt + 0150 (on the number pad)

Longer dash (called em sash):  Hit Alt + 0151

Hope this helps.

- Mahesh