How to put an em dash in Photoshop. Em dash and hyphen in Word

Every Habr user who has at least once typed “space-hyphen-space” here can see how the hyphen is magically replaced by an em dash. It was autocorrect that worked, similar to that found in Word and other word processors.

What is an em dash

The dash, or simply dash, comes in three main varieties, if you don’t bother:

The hyphen, the shortest one, is entered from the keyboard.
Em dash or EM DASH is a dash the width of a Latin M. That’s how it is in this phrase.
The em dash or EN DASH is a dash the width of the Latin N. Like this: –

If you bother, there are quite a lot of these traits, with their own traditions, gurus and holy wars. Well, what would it be like without them?

Due to my line of work, I have to deal with typography, and in order to format the text correctly and immediately, without relying on the mercy of the iron brain, I need to be able to enter symbols from the keyboard that cannot be entered. In particular, the em dash, which is often used in direct speech.

But, as we know: if you can’t, but really want to, then you can. For a long time sat on Windows and used it for quick input symbols missing from the keyboard with a known combination: pressed + a series of presses on the small (numeric) keyboard. For example, an em dash was inserted using 0151 with the alt held down. (The method worked flawlessly on the popularly beloved Piggy, as it is now - I don’t know, tell me in the comments.)

Several years ago, when I made the final decision to move to Linux, the problem of quickly entering typographic characters arose in full force. These are not only dashes, these are various types of typographic quotation marks - “Christmas trees” and “paws”, but also degrees of vodka Celsius °, approximate equality ≈ and other necessary things.

As usual, I went to the Internet to look for a solution. As usual, it was found immediately.

Compose key

Search engines came up with this method in large numbers. What it is?

The Compose method allows you to press and release a specially assigned key, enter a code sequence of characters and get a candy wrapper of the corresponding symbol on the screen.

For example, pressing 1 and then 2, we get ½. To get the recommended em dash, press the hyphen three times, and so on. Learn the code table, bro, it requires memorizing code combinations, sometimes intuitive, sometimes not so much.

You can assign, for example, the left Win, also known as Super, to the role of Compose. Or the right one, whichever suits you. However, after some time I felt: a certain discomfort of the method, felt at the beginning, did not want to dissipate over time. I remembered the rapid method of tapping numbers and felt slightly nostalgic.

Level 3

Let me remind you that this happened several years ago. In the flow search results There were several mentions of the mysterious third level, but I couldn’t immediately Google what it was.

And I remained a happy Compose presser until one day I got into the jungle of my Linux keyboard settings and stumbled over... the word “level 3”! Both on…

(Or has it already been translated into Russian?.. I don’t remember. It doesn’t matter. And - I won’t bore you with the lyrics, straight to the point.)

The keyboard has levels. The first level is when you just pressed a key. For example, pressing “A” will type “a”; By pressing “2” you will print “2”.

The second level is when you pressed a key while holding Shift. Then pressing "A" will type "A"; By pressing “2” you will type “@” (in the Latin layout) or “"” in Russian.

By using the third level, you will be able to type other characters, but you no longer need to hold down Shift, but a modifier key specially assigned by you. It’s convenient for me to switch to the third level with the right Alt. Easily and easily enter frequently used herringbone quotes and em dashes with one hand.

But that's not all! By simultaneously holding down the Shift and Level3 keys, we get the fourth level and a few more symbols that do not fit into the logical, intuitively expected places of the third.

To take advantage of this feature, Linux users must remember to enable "additional typographic characters" in " different parameters compatibility". Well, of course, select the key to select the third level (or third row, depending on the translation, level 3, in general). After which you can view and print a map of the symbols involved there in the settings.

But there is also a fifth level - but the inquisitive reader will figure it out on his own; the inquisitive person doesn’t need it at all, as IMHA whispers to me.

The feature is available in all major DEs (Gnome 3 users will have to install a tweaker). What about Windows? It turns out that there is such an opportunity there too. Keyword for search - “Birman layout”.

For obvious reasons, I myself have not tested this software. I would be grateful for sensible comments from those in the know. I'll bring it in.

Total

AND Linux users, and Windows users can customize their Birman layout, or use the Compose method, or both, as Winnie the Pooh used to say.

Now we can easily enter the symbols “”-°≈½⅓¼←→, numbers squared², cubed³, and other chiaroscuro.

And we can even place accents on the right place!

Upd1:

Comrade suggests: the configuration of third-level symbols is in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/typo.

Compose method for Windows users Comrade advises: WinCompose project on GitHub.

Upd2:

For Android there are several keyboards that have something like a third level. By long tap A window will pop up in which you can select additional characters. At first I used Hacker's Keyboard, then switched to its Full Keyboard mod by a Russian-speaking author.

Artemy Lebedev.

On keyboard one dash, it is usually to the right of zero and above the letters “Z” and “X”. Uninformed people call it alternately a hyphen, a minus, or a dash. Lebedev explains to us what it is four(given the two types of dashes) different symbols. Actually them at least nine, and I’ll tell you about this now.

Concerning minus(−), many people already know everything about it: the minus is used in mathematical expressions, has the same width as any number, and is aligned in height capital letter, as opposed to a dash and a hyphen, and is written in HTML as − .

At this point everyone usually moves to the dash. But wait, we haven't covered three symbols yet!

What symbol is used in writing telephone numbers (555‒41‒72)? Hyphen, you say; but no! There is a separate symbol for this: digital dash(figure dash). It looks (‒) almost like a minus, but it is not a minus.

You may ask: why then can’t you use a minus sign, since it looks exactly the same? Because a minus sign is a subtraction sign, and in a phone number nothing is subtracted from anything. For the same reason that you should use em to highlight text rather than i . This cannot be explained, it can only be known.

The digital dash has the code U+2012 and is written in HTML as ‒ .

ABOUT hyphen symbol, also called a soft hyphen, is also known to many. This symbol, denoted in HTML as -, is placed in words between syllables in those places where hyphenation can be made. It is not displayed on the screen, except when it hits the end of the line; in this case, the browser (they say that even Firefox has learned to do this since the third version) does not hyphenate the entire word, but puts a hyphen and hyphenates the rest of the word.

This especially helps in long words, the transfer of which creates huge empty spaces on the right side of the screen. Huge disadvantage The hyphen character is that it is inconvenient to place manually (however, autotyping programs can handle this) and that its use clutters and makes it unreadable source text (therefore, it is better if the placement of hyphens is done by the CMS at the stage of generating HTML code from the text stored in the database).

Another hyphen-like symbol is the dash (⁃), used as list markers ( dash bullet). The Lebedev Studio rightly notes that in the Russian typographic tradition there is no such thing as a bullet (meaning traditional circles with squares), and they suggest using a (long) dash as a marker; as you can see, that's exactly what they do (or did) on their site, and they even broke out an article telling you how to do it.

Actually for list markers there is special character, having the code U+2043 (however, Lebedev claims that this does not apply to Russian typography). In HTML, making such a marker for a list is quite simple using CSS:

Ul( list-style: none inside; ) ul>li: before( content: "\2043"; margin-left: -1ex; margin-right: 1ex; )

(Of course, the given code is not ideal, and it will only work in correct browsers, but the idea is clear to you, I hope.)

Now we can finally move on to the dash; here everything is already well-worn: the difference between en dash(-, en dash, a dash the width of the letter “n”, -) and em dash(—, em dash, a dash the width of the letter “M”, —). It is known that in Russian typography exclusively the em dash is used (although there are disputes regarding the possibility of using en dash in numeric ranges), while in the West they usually prefer en dash.

The em dash is also used in Russian in dialogues. In the West, a separate symbol is often used for this purpose horizontal line (―):

― Je m'ennuie tellement, dit-elle.
― Cela n'est pas de ma faute, rétorqua-t-il.

So, nine different lines:

Sign	HTML	Name	Purpose and use
-	-	hyphen	instead of all other dashes in the absence of technical capabilities
‐	‐	hyphen	to separate parts of a word: “light gray”, “in my opinion”, “someone”, etc.
−	−	minus	mathematical expressions: 2 − 3 = −1
‒	‒	digital dash	telephone numbers and other digital codes
	-	hyphen symbol	in (long) words in places where hyphenation can be made
⁃	⁃	dash bullet	list marker
-	-	en dash	western typography
—	—	em dash	Russian typography
―	―	horizontal line	dialogues (in Western typography)

And, for comparison, in one line:
- ‐
−
‒

⁃
-
—

When typing, users very often ignore some punctuation marks. This statement is also true for a dash, instead of which a hyphen is used. Let's try to figure out together how to put this symbol in the text.

By the way, there can be two types of dashes - middle (–), which is used mainly to indicate a range, and long (-), used for explanatory text instead of parentheses (the second type is practically not used in Russian).

In most cases, the need to introduce a dash in the text arises precisely in this text editor. There are several easy ways to do this:

In OpenOffice or LibreOffice editors

Just like in the program from Microsoft package Office, we can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + minus sign on number pad keyboards. But by default, in free editors autocorrect is configured:

we put a hyphen between words with spaces on both sides, and we see how the punctuation mark automatically changes to a dash;
If autocorrection does not occur, try putting two hyphens in a row; the editor will interpret them as one dash.

In any Windows input field

There are cases when you need to enter a dash not only in Word. In this case, you can use the character input system using the so-called “Alt codes” supported by Windows. Place the cursor at the required location and make sure that it is enabled numeric keypad(Numpad), and enter the following combinations:

With “Alt” held down, the code is “0150” for the middle dash;
“Alt” – “0151” – en dash;

Instead of an afterword

As you can see, putting a dash instead of a hyphen in the text is very simple. We hope that with our help you will no longer neglect this punctuation mark. Be careful - many of the codes described above must only be entered using the additional numeric keypad.

The question often arises when writing any articles or coursework, how to put a dash in Word or in any text editor. Everyone knows where the hyphen is, which is why it is used very often. Although there are no specific rules on this, it is still better to use a dash.

Turns out, there are 3 different types dash(long (-), medium (–) and “electronic” (-)) and at least 5 ways to insert them. In this article we will analyze not only situations for the program Microsoft Word, but also some methods can be used in any text or HTML document.

Five different insertion methods - choose the one that suits you best

1. AutoCorrect in Word.

Program Microsoft Office Word by default replaces a hyphen with a dash in the following situation: you type, for example, the following text “The verb is” and at the moment when you put a space after the word “this”, the hyphen will be replaced with a dash. That is, it will turn out: “The verb is.”

Autocorrect occurs when a hyphen has a space on either side, but if it is just a word where it is used, such as the word “somewhere,” then, of course, autocorrect will not work.

2. Use of hexadecimal codes.

If auto-replacement does not occur, then you can add a dash yourself using the typed numbers and key combinations.

In Word, simply type the number 2014 and press the key combination alt + x (x). The number 2014 will be replaced with an em dash. The number 2013 will be replaced by a shorter dash, and 2012 by an even smaller one.

3. A method for inserting dashes for any text editor.

Clamp Alt key and use the numeric keypad to enter the numbers 0151, release the Alt key. An em dash will appear in the place where you placed the cursor.

This method will work even if you are not typing in Microsoft program Word, or in any html editor.

4. Using hot keys.

If you have an additional “numeric” keyboard on your keyboard, then you can press the key combination Ctrl and “-” (Ctrl and minus sign) or the combination ctrl keys+ alt + “-” (capital dash).

5. Through the “Insert Symbol” menu.

Go to the “Insert” menu in Word

On the right we find the “Symbol” button

By clicking on it, a tab will appear on which you need to select “Other symbols”

A window will open with many different symbols

To avoid looking for a dash among them, you can simply go to the “ Special characters" Select the em dash there, click “insert” and it will be placed in your document.

As it turns out, everything is very simple. We hope that this article will help you write your texts even more correctly.

Artemy Lebedev.

Concerning minus(−), many people already know everything about it: the minus sign is used in mathematical expressions, has the same width as any number, is aligned with the height of the capital letter, unlike dashes and hyphens, and is written in HTML as − .

At this point everyone usually moves to the dash. But wait, we haven't covered three symbols yet!

The digital dash has the code U+2012 and is written in HTML as ‒ .

This especially helps with long words, where hyphenation creates huge empty spaces on the right side of the screen. The huge disadvantage of the hyphen is that it is inconvenient to place it manually (however, autotyping programs can handle this) and that its use clutters up and makes the source code of the text unreadable (therefore, it is better if the placement of hyphens is done by the CMS at the generation stage HTML code from text stored in the database).

In fact, there is a special character for list markers with the code U+2043 (however, Lebedev claims that this does not apply to Russian typography). In HTML, making such a marker for a list is quite simple using CSS:

Ul( list-style: none inside; ) ul>li: before( content: "\2043"; margin-left: -1ex; margin-right: 1ex; )

(Of course, the above code is not perfect, and it will only work in the right browsers, but I hope you get the idea.)

Now we can finally move on to the dash; here everything is already well-worn: the difference between en dash(-, en dash, a dash the width of the letter “n”, -) and em dash(—, em dash, a dash the width of the letter “M”, —). It is known that in Russian typography exclusively the em dash is used (although there is debate about the possibility of using an en dash in numeric ranges), while in the West they usually prefer en dash.

The em dash is also used in Russian in dialogues. In the West, a separate symbol is often used for this purpose horizontal line (―):

― Je m'ennuie tellement, dit-elle.
― Cela n'est pas de ma faute, rétorqua-t-il.

So, nine different lines:

Sign	HTML	Name	Purpose and use
-	-	hyphen	instead of all other dashes in the absence of technical capabilities
‐	‐	hyphen	to separate parts of a word: “light gray”, “in my opinion”, “someone”, etc.
−	−	minus	mathematical expressions: 2 − 3 = −1
‒	‒	digital dash	telephone numbers and other digital codes
	-	hyphen symbol	in (long) words in places where hyphenation can be made
⁃	⁃	dash bullet	list marker
-	-	en dash	western typography
—	—	em dash	Russian typography
―	―	horizontal line	dialogues (in Western typography)

And, for comparison, in one line:
- ‐
−
‒

⁃
-
—