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non-breaking spaces and hyphens

Anonymous
2017-10-03T02:05:10+00:00

I work as a transcriber and often need to type something like  "I went to -- we both went to..."  I need to keep the two dashes with the preceding word.  In an older Word version I used search and replace to do this when I was done typing the document but when I try that now (in Word 2013) it always links it to the following word as well.  Any suggestions?

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Suzanne S Barnhill 278K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2017-10-03T21:47:15+00:00

The first space should be a nonbreaking one (Ctrl+Shift+Space) and the first hyphen should also be nonbreaking (Ctrl+Shift+Hyphen), the second hyphen and space should be regular ones. Does this not work for you?

Perhaps your best bet would be to select the two hyphens and the leading space and save the lot as an AutoCorrect entry. When you type the shortcut for the entry and press the spacebar, you'll get the nonbreaking space, nonbreaking hyphen, and regular hyphen, followed by the space.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 278K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-10-07T22:09:04+00:00

    AutoCorrect entries work only when you type the exact text you have input for "Replace," followed by a space or punctuation. That's why you should not try to include the following space in the AutoCorrect entry: you need to type a space after the AutoCorrect to "trigger" the correction.

    But it appears you are referring to the built-in actions of AutoFormat As You Type. The way that works is as follows:

    • Two hyphens will be converted to an em dash whether they are preceded and followed by letters or spaces. That is <space>--<space> will be converted to <space>em dash<space> and <word>--<word> will be converted to <word>em dash<word>.
    • If the two hyphens are only followed by a space, they'll be converted to an em dash and the space removed. But if the two hyphens are only preceded by a space, they'll be converted to an en dash and the space preserved.
    • A single hyphen preceded and followed by spaces will be converted to an en dash. Annoyingly, a single hyphen merely preceded by a space will also be converted to an en dash, which means that if you want to type a word fragment, such as -ment, you will get –ment instead.

    But here's the important part of all those things: None of these conversions will take place until after you complete the following word by typing a space or punctuation mark.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-06T13:36:17+00:00

    Thanks for the pointer.

    For me that made no change. I have now set up two shortcuts:

    Double hyphen gives non-breaking space+em-dash+space and  Ctrl+Keypad hyphen gives non.breaking space + en-dash + space 

    Both work as expected after letter (even in the middle of a word!) and after , ; : - but not after . ! ? and _

    Immediately after those characters Word behaves as if autocorrection had been temporarily switched of. Both the spece before the dash and behind the dash go missing and the double hyphens are not joined into a dash. The behaviour is independent of the language selected (English and Swedish tested)

    -Lup

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-03T22:09:36+00:00

    Hallelujiah and thank you!  This did it.  I kept replacing both dashes with nonbreaking hyphens and I'm guessing now that is what made the following word "stick" to the dashes as well.  Very much appreciate the help!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-10-03T16:40:44+00:00

    Hi,

    You can easily insert non-breaking spaces and non-breaking hyphens using the Insert option or using shortcut keys. Here’s an article that would walk you through the steps on how you can keep text together in Word 2013.

    Let us know if you need additional assistance.

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