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