Inserting a Non-Breaking Hyphen

Summary: Non-breaking hyphens can come in helpful for some types of writing. They force the words (or characters) on both sides of the hyphen to stay on the same line. There are two ways to add such hyphens to your document, as described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

When Word calculates line length and wraps text to the next line, it tries to break the line at a space or a hyphen--a dash. Sometimes, however, you may not want Word to break a line at a dash. For instance, dashes are used in telephone numbers, and you might not want a line to break in the middle of a telephone number. The answer is to use non-breaking hyphens instead of regular dashes when you don't want Word to break a line at the hyphen. To do this, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys as you type the dash (this is the same as typing Ctrl and an underscore). Word will then not break the line at that point.

You can also insert a non-breaking hyphen by following these steps:

Choose Symbol from the Insert menu. This displays the Insert Symbol dialog box.
Click on the Special Characters tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)
Highlight the Nonbreaking Hyphen character.
Click on Insert.
Close the dialog box by clicking on Cancel.

Tip #1116 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Inserting a Non-Breaking Hyphen