Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Hyphenating Your Document.

Hyphenating Your Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 13, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Hyphenation is the process of adding hyphens to words at the beginning of lines so the hyphenated part will fit at the end of the previous line. The hyphens are inserted between syllables in a word. Word can automatically hyphenate your document for you, or you can use the hyphenation tool to manually hyphenate your document. To use the hyphenation tool, follow these steps:

Go to the beginning of your document (this is not necessary, but saves time when hyphenating).
Choose Language from the Tools menu, then choose Hyphenation. Word displays the Hyphenation dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Hyphenation dialog box.

Use the controls in the dialog box to specify parameters of how the hyphenation is done.
Select the Automatically Hyphenate Document check box if you want Word to make all the hyphenation decisions for you. When you subsequently click OK, you can skip the rest of the steps.
Click the Manual button.
You are shown the first possible hyphenation.
If the word being proposed for hyphenation is long enough, you may be able to specify a different place for it to be hyphenated. Simply click on one of the proposed hyphenation points.
Click on Yes to hyphenate the word at the noted point, or click on No to skip hyphenating the word. You are then shown the next possible hyphenation.
Repeat steps 7 and 8 for the remainder of the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (993) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Hyphenating Your Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Creating a Drawing Object

Creating simple drawing objects is easy in Excel. All you need to do is use the large number of drawing tools available ...

Discover More

Forcing Dates Forward

Want to push a date to some pre-defined day of the month? Here are some ways to force the issue.

Discover More

ExcelTips Ribbon 2019 Archive (Table of Contents)

ExcelTips is a weekly newsletter that provides tips on how to effectively use Microsoft's best-selling ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Turning Off Automatic Hyphenation for Parts of a Document

Word can hyphenate documents automatically, if you want it to. But what about those situations where you want most of a ...

Discover More

When to Hyphenate Your Document

Want to add a finishing touch to your printed document? Hyphenating the words in the document can make your text read ...

Discover More

Understanding the Hot Zone

Need to hyphenate your document? Then you need to know about the hot zone because it controls how words are hyphenated

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 7?

2015-08-04 11:54:13

Byju V

I am using word 2010. I cannot find the hyphenation option. Please help me.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.