![]() ![]() The Em-dash and En-dash are on the ‘Special Characters’ menu (Insert | Symbol | More Symbols …) along with many other characters. Use the em dash to indicate an interruption or an abrupt change in thought. It has multiple uses, making it a especially useful in informal writing or fiction. ![]() To indicate ranges (“20-25 degrees”) or to join up words (“Dagg-Bayliss Act 2015”) What is an Em Dash Used for An em dash is the longest of the dashes. Word shortcut: Ctrl + Num – (that’s the hyphen/dash on a number pad) “ sometimes used to set off summaries or definitions” En-dash “s how an abrupt change in thought or be used where a full stop (period) is too strong and a comma too weak” Word shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + Num – (that’s the hyphen/dash on a number pad) Wikipedia has a page on the various dashes with examples of their use. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. It’s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. The names come from the amount of horizontal space they use, relative to the M and N characters (lower or upper case, depending on the font). A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text (not at the bottom that’s an underscore). They were not on a standard typewriter keyboard so they weren’t in general use until word-processors made them available to the public. These are two other hyphen-like characters in Word, the Em-dash and the En-dash. If you delve into typography keep in mind that there is a difference. We’ll use the terms dash & hyphen interchangeably because that’s what most people do. Technically there’s a difference between a dash (aka hyphen-minus), a hyphen and a minus sign, see the table below. In everyday life, most of us use the same key to type all three. Em-dashes are not generally used in formal documents. Create an em dash by typing two hyphens without spaces between the hyphens and no spaces before or after the hyphens. Generally, using the em- dash makes the writing style more informalas if you were writing to an old friend. We have more on hyphenation and special hyphens below. The em-dash can be used to replace parentheses, colons, and commas. That hyphen is the one to separate hyphenated words.
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