
Using the n-dash and m-dash on a blog or websiteĪugBy Mister Punctual Filed Under: M-dash, N-dash Tagged With: em-dash, en-dash, insert m-dash in Word, insert n-dash in Microsoft Word, insert n-dash in Word, m-dash, Microsoft Word, n-dash, n-dash Word, Word Reader InteractionsĬtrl – H opens the find-and-replace dialogue. How to use the hyphen, n-dash and m-dash in your writingĭifferences between the hyphen, dash and minus symbols
MAC COMMAND KEY FOR M DASH FULL
If you have a full keyboard with a number pad (not just numbers at the top), you can click ‘Ctrl – minus’ for the n-dash and ‘Alt – Ctrl – minus’ for the m-dash. Another method for inserting n-dash and m-dash, already built into Word: Now it is easy to type the n-dash or m-dash with a quick keyboard command. Repeat the steps for the n-dash (and any other special characters you tend to use). Click ‘assign’ (this is IMPORTANT – if you don’t click ‘assign’, the shortcut won’t be created and you’ll need to start again).In the field titled ‘press new shortcut key’ enter a convenient key combination – I use ‘alt m’ for the m-dash and ‘alt n’ for the n-dash because they are easy to remember and easy to type.Choose m-dash then click ‘shortcut key’.Find the m-dash in the character map, or just click on the ‘special characters’ tab and they should be at the top.The only one I haven’t tried is Office 360 – thanks for any comments from Office 360 users!) (These instructions should work fine for old and new versions of Microsoft Word. The method below lets you assign new shortcuts that are easy to type (and easy to remember). Word has default shortcut key combinations for special characters, but I find them hard to remember and hard to reach with my fingers. An easy way to insert an n-dash or m-dash in Microsoft Word:Ĭreate easy keyboard shortcuts for the characters. Microsoft Word can create the n-dash and m-dash automatically while you type.Īutomatically created in Word when you type “something – something” (word-space-hyphen-space-word).Īutomatically created in Word when you type “something–something” (word-hyphen-hyphen-word).īut if you miss an n-dash while you type – or if you want to add one later when editing text – it is not easy to get the dash that you want.
MAC COMMAND KEY FOR M DASH HOW TO
After writing about how the n-dash and m-dash are used, I thought I should add something about how to insert the n-dash and m-dash quickly in Microsoft Word.
