How to get long dashes in Pages ("em" dashes)

Question

How to get long dashes in Pages ("em" dashes)

Hi there--

I'm new to Pages but been using Mac for decades. Pretty excited about having a new word processor. Only one question. Even though I had MS Word I (have to) use it at work and got used to the feature in Auto Correct where you type in two hypens "--" and it replaces them with a long dash, an em dash, I think it's called. Does anyone have a trick for getting this to work in Pages' Auto Correct feature? I tried adding a new correction by putting in simply "--" on the left to be replaced with Option + the hypen key, which gives you a long dash. However, Auto Correct didn't seem to recognize the two hypens together.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

--Melissa

PowerBook 15" 1.25 Ghz FW-800, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Feb 24, 2006 12:18 AM

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Answer 1

Bakari

Level 2

481 points

Feb 24, 2006 1:25 AM in response to Melissa Bruno

Did you try ShiftOptionthe dash key? I know it works in TextEdit that way.

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Answer 2

FrankBe

Level 4

1,605 points

Feb 24, 2006 1:28 AM in response to Melissa Bruno

Hello Melissa,

I don't own Pages 2 (for the next two days, but than I will 🙂 but why don't you type the dashes directly into the document? May be the hyphenation symbol "-" has a very special meaning for text arrangement (manual word break) and Pages is not able to handle this for autocorrection, because it means to "break" this into two parts? Only a suggestion.

The "en"-dash (shortcut: [alt/option]+[-]) and the "em"-dash (shortcut: [alt/option] [shift][-]) have different shapes and meanings.

Frank.

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Answer 3

IanB

Level 4

1,374 points

Feb 24, 2006 1:27 AM in response to Melissa Bruno

Hi Melissa

I'm not sure that this will be much comfort but I just added an Auto Correction for two hypens to go to the em dash and it worked fine. Did you accidentally uncheck the box in the On column next to your addition?

It should work.

Best regards

Ian

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Answer 4

IanB

Level 4

1,374 points

Feb 24, 2006 1:51 AM in response to FrankBe

I’ve no idea if this article is authoritative but it is a useful explanation of the hypen, en and em dashes and how to use them properly.

http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

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Answer 5

Feb 24, 2006 4:04 AM in response to IanB

I’ve no idea if this article is authoritative but it
is a useful explanation of the hypen, en and em
dashes and how to use them properly.

http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

Wikipedia gives some less rigid and internationally adjusted advice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emdash

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Answer 6

Max Fabre

Level 3

530 points

Feb 24, 2006 6:40 AM in response to Melissa Bruno

Hullo Mellisa:

The (undocumented) shortcut for this is Option / double en dash; or Option / double hyphen, however you like to think of it.

It does not require entry into the auto spelling options. It's just there.

It's also accessible from the character pallete; most readily entered from the international symbol in your system menu above the Pages one. Choose punctuation, find the em dash, and click "insert."

Cheers.

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Answer 7

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

Feb 24, 2006 7:20 AM in response to FrankBe

I think Bakari got it right: shift-option-dash. I wouldn't make an auto-correct entry (converting dash-dash into an m-dash) because sometimes you want a dash-dash. I use it in email where sometimes an m-dash is converted into a weird character.

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Answer 8

Max Fabre

Level 3

530 points

Feb 24, 2006 7:32 AM in response to DennisG

Yes, shift / option dash works too. The result is just the same.

Cheers.

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Answer 9

Feb 24, 2006 1:42 PM in response to IanB

I’ve no idea if this article is authoritative but it
is a useful explanation of the hypen, en and em
dashes and how to use them properly.

http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

Thanks for the article! I didn't realize that Option + Hyphen was giving me an en dash and not an em dash. (I never knew where they got the names from!) Thanks for the Shift+Option shortcut.

--Melissa

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Answer 10

Feb 24, 2006 1:52 PM in response to IanB

Hi, Ian--

I just double checked what I'm doing. I had put the two hypens in and as the substition I had entered Option + the hypen key, which I think gives you an en dash. At least I think it's an en dash--I tried inserting from the Character Palette and then hitting Option + Hyphen and it looks the same. So I guess that's what the problem was. I just put in an Auto-correct for "--" with the real em dash (Shift + Option + Hyphen) and it works! I just didn't know the keyboard shortcut for the em dash--keyboard shortcuts aren't listed anywhere, are they? I remember Key Caps from pre-OS X days where you could hit the Option key (or Shift+Option) and see the characters change on the keypad.)

Thank you so much!!

—Melissa

Hi Melissa

I'm not sure that this will be much comfort but I
just added an Auto Correction for two hypens to go to
the em dash and it worked fine. Did you accidentally
uncheck the box in the On column next to your
addition?

It should work.

Best regards

Ian

PowerBook 15 1.25 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Reply

Answer 11

Feb 24, 2006 2:17 PM in response to Melissa Bruno

You can verify what character you have using the Character Palette.

In the Character Palette, select the View "Roman". Expand the Character Info.

Method 1: Highlight the character in a document and drag it to the field just below the text "Character Info" in the Palette.
Method 2: Highlight the character in a document and click on the wheel in the Palette's bottom left corner. Choose the pop-up menu option "Show Character Selected in Application". (Method 2 may not work with MacOS 10.3?)

The name of the character is written under the field with "Related Characters".

The equivalent of Key Caps in MacOS X 10.4 (and 10.3?) is the Keyboard Viewer, which can be activated in System Preferences > International > Input Menu.

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