Automatically format hyphens as en dashes and em dashes - Help and How-to

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Automatically format hyphens as en dashes and em dashes

Applies to: Microsoft Office Word 2003

When you type a space and one or two hyphens between text, Microsoft Word automatically inserts an en dash ( – ). If you type two hyphens and do not include a space before the hyphens, then an em dash ( — ) is created.

To create the dashes as you type or after you type, do one of the following:

Show Format dashes as you type

On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
Select the Hyphens (--) with dash (—) check box.

For example, "See pages 3 - 10" becomes "See pages 3 – 10."

Show Format dashes after you type

On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat tab.
Select the Hyphens (--) with dash (—) check box.

For example, "Many pines--ponderosa, for example--grow here" becomes "Many pines—ponderosa, for example—grow here."

Note You can undo formatting or turn options on or off by clicking an option on the AutoCorrect Options button Button image . The button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that is automatically formatted, and it changes to a button icon when you point to it.