You can also type out the HTML entities in WordPress’ HTML mode: - and –. In Windows, en-dashes are typed with Alt + 0150, and em-dashes are typed with Alt + 0151. Here’s how WordPress replaces hyphens with dashes:įoo. Remember to remove the spaces afterwards if you use this method. With Windows, there are three ways to type an em dash: In Microsoft Word, two dashes with spaces on either side will autocorrect to an em dash. The shortcut is Option + Shift + Hyphen or you can go to Type > Insert Special Character > Hyphens and. On a Mac, you type an em dash by holding down the shift and option keys while pressing hyphen (-). Like the en dash the em dash is not visible on keyboard and must be activated. Attributive compounds: (pre–Vietnam War weapons, the ex–Vice President non–New York style pizza) The Em Dash is used to indicate a break or interruption in thought or to separate a sentence from a bullet point. The n-dash and m-dash are among the punctuation you rarely see used in tweets, which is a shame because, for example, using an m-dash to separate clauses only uses one character it’s space-efficient for tweeting.Relationships and connections: (a JFK–Atlanta flight, Bose–Einstein condensate, the Jackson–Murray fight, the Macy–Jaquith wedding).Ranges of number values: (2–4 teaspoons, from 1:00–2:30pm, ages 7–10).En-dash use is probably one of the least known skills in everyday punctuation. Em-dashes signify a thought break, rather like parenthesis, but with a stronger implied break.Īn en-dash (–) is slightly shorter - the width of the letter “n” being its guiding length. I’m just going to call that a “hyphen” for the rest of this post, just to save time.Īn em-dash (-) is a wide dash - the width of the letter “m” being its guiding length. But if you like the look of the em dash, you can make it by pressing the shift, option, and hyphen keys at the same time. Either way is considered correct, nowadays. It is a special character that is somewhere in-between a minus sign and a hyphen. Since typewriters didn't have an em-dash key, two hyphens became the standard substitute-like this. Or, press Shift+Option+Minus (-) on a Mac. It is neither of these, and yet it is both. If youre working on a computer, press Ctrl+Alt +Minus(-) or Alt+0151 on windows. It is often called a “minus” or a “hyphen”.
This is the key that is probably to the right of your “0” key on your keyboard. I want to look specifically at dashes, and talk about how WordPress handles the conversion of hyphens to dashes.įirst, let’s talk about the three most common forms of horizontal strokes that exist. They were not on a standard typewriter keyboard so they weren’t in general use until word-processors made them available to the public. Properly “curled” quotes, fancy dashes - like this - and more. These are two other hyphen-like characters in Word, the Em-dash and the En-dash.