Quickly insert an n-dash or m-dash in Microsoft Word

After writing about how the n-dash and m-dash are used, I thought I should add something about how to insert them quickly in Microsoft Word.

Word can create the n-dash and m-dash automatically (see my last post). But if you miss an n-dash – or if you want to add one when editing text – it becomes quite clumsy.

There is an easy solution for typing the n-dash and m-dash in Word:

Create easy typing shortcuts for the characters. Word has default shortcut key combinations for special characters, but I find them inconvenient – this method assigns new shortcuts that are easy to type (and easy to remember).

How-to:

(These instructions are for Word 2007, but it is very similar in older versions of Word and for Word 2010.)

1. Go to Insert –> Symbol –> More Symbols
2. Find the n-dash and m-dash in the character map, or just click on the ‘special characters’ tab and they should be at the top.
3. Choose m-dash then click ‘shortcut key’.
4. In the field titled ‘press new shortcut key’ enter a convenient key combination – I use ‘alt n’ and ‘alt m’.
5. Click ‘assign’ (this is IMPORTANT – if you don’t click ‘assign’ the shortcut won’t be created).
6. Click ‘close’.

Repeat the steps for the n-dash (and any other special characters you tend to use).

Now it is easy to enter the punctuation you want without any extra typing!