LONG DASH INSTALL
LONG DASH SOFTWARE

This article was originally published in October 2020. Now go forth and fill your work with far too many of them. For now, though, I hope these tips helped you type em (and en) dashes. I sincerely hope that, someday in the near future, Microsoft will make a change to its operating system that makes this article completely useless. For example: The office is open Monday–Friday.Ĭonsidering there are significant differences between an em and en dash, it really shouldn't be this hard to type them using only a keyboard. For example: A notebook, pen, and laptop-these were all in my welcome kit!

The em dash (-) is used to separate extra information or mark a break in a sentence. My editor made me add this, so really quickly, here's the difference between an em and en dash: If most of your writing happens in Google Docs, good news: Google Docs has an autoreplace feature, which you could use instead of a system-wide tool.

LONG DASH INSTALL

Install the app, then make a phrase that creates your desired dash. PhraseExpress, which is free for personal use, works quite well for this. You can also set up a rule to quickly make dashes. It's a great time saver, particularly if there are things you wind up sharing with coworkers, customers, or potential dates multiple times a day. These apps automatically replace custom keywords with whatever you want. But text expansion apps are a better tool for the job. You could leave your notepad open with an em dash to copy and paste as needed-that's what my editor used to do when she had a PC. Windows doesn't offer a quick way to make these dashes, so you'll have to add your own.

LONG DASH SOFTWARE

Create the long dash symbol using autoreplace software

For now, though, let's check out some potential alternatives. Why doesn't Microsoft make this a system-wide setting in Windows? I don't know, and you should ask them, on Twitter, daily. Again, Microsoft Office apps should figure out what you want and insert the correct dash. And if you want an en dash, surround a single dash with spaces between two words, like - this. Put two dashes between two words, like-this, and the app will understand you mean to insert an em dash. If you're working in Microsoft Office apps like Word or Outlook, there's another option. While this only gives me a slight headache, I'm somehow even more annoyed than before.

Long dash