Hi Suzanne,
This, as you note, is most confusing. Especially since I never paid enough
attention to what creates an em dash (because I've assigned the symbol to
Ctrl-/).
Because it takes two hyphens create an en dash, I just figured it took three
hyphens to create an em dash (not unthinkable considering it takes four stabs
of the F8 key to select a paragraph).
Looking at all of this again, I see that to create my [space][en
dash][space], you can use either of these:
[space][hyphen][space]
[space][hyphen][hyphen][space]
And to create an em dash with no spaces, you use two hyphens.
Which means that if you want an en dash with no hyphens, you either have to
use the keyboard shortcut, Alt + numeric keys, or insert the symbol using the
mouse.
Given that, I must stay that my mistaken idea of three hyphens for an em
dash seems the height of simplicity and logic.
Thanks again for your time and insights.
Don
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
It was a little confusing to me at first that two hyphens surrounded by
spaces produce a spaced en dash, whereas two hyphens without spaces produce
an em dash without spaces, but, conveniently, these two results represent
the usage in the U.S. (em dash) and U.K. (spaced en dash), so it works out
nicely.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org