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.
Microsoft Word can create the n-dash and m-dash automatically while you type.
N-dash (or ‘en dash’)
Automatically created in Word when you type “something – something” (word-space-hyphen-space-word).
M-dash (or ’em dash’)
Automatically created in Word when you type “something–something” (word-hyphen-hyphen-word).
But 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.
An easy way to insert an n-dash or m-dash in Microsoft Word:
Create easy keyboard shortcuts for the characters.
Word has default shortcut key combinations for special characters, but I find them hard to remember and hard to reach with my fingers. The method below lets you assign new shortcuts that are easy to type (and easy to remember).
How-to:
(These instructions should work fine for old and new versions of Microsoft Word. The only one I haven’t tried is Office 360 – thanks for any comments from Office 360 users!)
- Go to Insert –> Symbol –> More Symbols
- Find the m-dash in the character map, or just click on the ‘special characters’ tab and they should be at the top.
- Choose m-dash then click ‘shortcut key’.
- 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.
- Click ‘assign’ (this is IMPORTANT – if you don’t click ‘assign’, the shortcut won’t be created and you’ll need to start again).
- Click ‘close’.
Repeat the steps for the n-dash (and any other special characters you tend to use).
Now it is easy to type the n-dash or m-dash with a quick keyboard command.
Another method for inserting n-dash and m-dash, already built into Word:
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.
More about the n-dash and m-dash:
How to use the hyphen, n-dash and m-dash in your writing
Differences between the hyphen, dash and minus symbols
Using the n-dash and m-dash on a blog or website
There is a much easier way to add the en dash without searching symbols. Simply put the cursor where you want to add the en dash and hit Ctrl+- (thats the CTRL button and the minus sign at the same time)
Danielle that’s brilliant! Thanks – I’ll update this page with that new trick.
I sometimes list my name preceded by a hyphen or dash.
Is an “d-ash” or an “m-dash” recommended.
And is a space recommended before the name?
Hi Alan,
If you do that when you write your name at the bottom of an email or letter, for example, I suspect it’s sort of a non-conventional use of the punctuation. Which in my opinion is okay because it’s not really a use (nor a misuse) of punctuation that changes the way people read your writing; it’s more of an adornment. I think you do that in whichever way looks nicest to you!
What if you want dash dash to appear just like that –. Word makes it just one -.
I am a court reporter and our dashes are always a double dash, not a long line.
Please help.
Hi Lisa,
That’s an interesting problem. One solution is to hit ctrl-z every time Word auto-corrects a double-hyphen to an em dash, then continue typing. But that’s not ideal, is it? It would be easy to end up with an inconsistent document and if you (or anyone else) edits the documents later, Word would continue trying to add em dashes anytime you edited a word adjacent to your double-dashes. I tried tricking the Word auto-correct settings by adding a new entry that replaces — with — (i.e. replace double dash with double dash to override the built-in em dash correction) but that doesn’t work. Maybe another visitor will post a good solution here someday!
Regards,
Ken
tools -> autocorrect -> autoFormat -> deselect “symbol characters (–) with symbol (—)”
Great tips, thanks!!!
Thank you. I quickly grew tired of instructional websites that inform you that “Word automatically does this for you!” As if that were all you needed. Well, sometimes this is handy, but it does not work when editing. The assignment of a keyboard shortcut is much easier. So Thanks!
how about for a global search and replace?
Hi Vicki,
That’s no problem in Word.
Ctrl – H opens the find-and-replace dialogue.
You can, for example, find a [space-hyphen-space] in your document, copy all three characters (including the spaces), then paste into the ‘Find what’ field. Next, find an m-dash then copy and paste it into the ‘Replace with’ field.
You can then replace those hyphens one-by-one, using the ‘Replace’ and ‘Find Next’ buttons.
Or you can just click ‘Replace all’ and you’re done.
Warning: If your text has some imperfections, you need to be careful using find & replace. In the example above, if there are places in your text that have [word-hyphen-space-word] (no space before the hyphen) then the find function won’t spot it. It will only search the exact characters you enter in the ‘Find what’ field. Sometimes you need to use Find & Replace a few times, with different variations, to make sure it is all right.
Extra: In the Find & Replace dialogue, if you click ‘More’ then click ‘Special’, you’ll see a list of special characters including the en-dash and em-dash.
Thanks – works like a charm!
This has been really helpful – thank you!!
Emanuel