Word can also generate an en dash if you type a single space, followed by two hyphens, and then another space. Microsoft Word does this as long as you don’t insert a space before typing the repeated hyphens. Most word processors will, at least optionally, replace two repeated hyphens with an em dash. In his widely quoted critique of contemporary art, Professor Brown declares: “‘Post-postmodern ’ installations are as accessible to the average museumgoer as Stephen Hawking ’s writings on theoretical physics are to the average stargazer. The appearance of these marks depends on the font being used. The default setting in Microsoft Word attempts to insert the opening and closing marks as appropriate. Modern word processors, on the other hand, have the ability to insert unique opening and closing marks. On a typewriter, these marks are straight, since they must be used for both opening and closing marks. If you look at your computer keyboard, you will find (on US-English keyboards) a single key with both a double quotation mark ( ' ) and a mark that can be either an apostrophe or a single quotation mark ( ' ). Here is one area where punctuating with a typewriter was easier. Unless you are working with a typeface that renders the Unicode ellipsis with adequate spacing, I suggest sticking with periods and non-breaking spaces. The downside is that in most typefaces, there is far too little space between the dots. Because it’s a single character, there is no risk of it breaking across a line.

It is worth noting that there is a Unicode character, U+2026, for an ellipsis (…). In Microsoft Word, a non-breaking space can be inserted by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR. This will ensure that the three ellipsis points stay together when a line break occurs. To prevent this, you need to insert a non-breaking space on each side of the middle period in an ellipsis.

Word processing