When typing -- at least in basic applications such as TextEdit and Mail -- two hyphens get turned into em-dashes. I don't want this to happen. I freely type en- and em-dashes myself, and when I type two hyphens I want them to stay that way (for various reasons). What changes the two hyphens into an em-dash and how do I stop it?
MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Hi-Res anti-glare wide screen
TextEdit>Preferences
turn of smart dashes in the Options portion of the New Document Tab
close the current document and open a new one.
TextEdit>Preferences
turn of smart dashes in the Options portion of the New Document Tab
close the current document and open a new one.
You may also have an automatic text replacement set in the Keyboard section of System Preferences. To check that open the System Preferences app and follow this:
System Preferences > Keyboard > Text
Look for the two hyphens in the left column of the list. To remove that automatic text replacement, select the line with the 2 hyphens and click on the minus sign below the list.
Ugh. Application-specific. But I guess that makes sense.
So this works for TextEdit. Any ideas about Mail? I couldn't find a preference for smart dashes (or smart quotes, etc.).
I use web mail, it's the only thing that works with my ISP.
The setting is under Edit>Substitions in Mail but you can only enable or disable Smart Dashes while composing an email.
FWIW, there is a global setting for turning off smart quotes and dashes in System Preferences>Keyboard>Text but you can't turn them off separately apparently.
In Mail just put a space between your dashes - -
or…
dialabrain wrote:
The setting is under Edit>Substitions in Mail but you can only enable or disable Smart Dashes while composing an email.
Just to clarify, it will remember the setting.
I just found I had to toggle on then off again—then it seem to stick 😉
ahhh. all's well that ends well. 😎
Interesting. Never noticed that before. By the way, not only do you have to be composing but you have to have already typed a character!
What turns two hyphens in to an em-dash, and how do I stop that?
