How to add a soft hyphen? (disappears when word fits on a line after new formatting)

In the discussion from 2014, Michael59 answered this question, which nobody seemed to notice. But his answer (though hard to parse) works well! It needs to be set up before use, but only once, and from then on, soft hyphens can be used quite easily in (almost) any application. Essential for book writing!

Thank you Michael59! I've revamped what you said to make it easier to read and up-to-date for later OSes.

This solution is based on the clever fact that users can add any character to any program (almost) on a Mac.

A) To set your computer up so you can add soft hyphens easily in the future:

1) Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard

Check the box beside "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar"

(In mine, with OSX 10.11.6, it said "Show Keyboard, Emoji & Symbol Viewers in menu bar". —Joel)

2) Click on the keyboard icon that has now been placed on your menu bar.

Choose Show Character Viewer.

(In mine, choosing Show Emoji & Symbols worked. —Joel)

3) In the search box of the pop-up window that just appeared, type "soft hyphen" (without the quotes).

If the pop-up is shrunken (accomplished by clicking the keyboard icon in its upper corner), then you will NOT be able to proceed successfully.

Several characters may appear and the first looks like a hyphen, but is a soft hyphen.

4) Click it.

It becomes selected and to the right you see the name "SOFT HYPHEN".

5) Click on Add to Favorites (You can now close this window or add the character—see below.)

B) To insert it in text at some future time:

1) Make sure the cursor is where you want the soft hyphen.

2) Click on the keyboard icon on your menu bar.

Choose Show Emoji & Symbols (or Show Character Viewer)

3) Click on the Favorites category (marked with a star)

4) Double clicking the soft hyphen inserts it into the current text at the insert mark.

Note: It will not appear to insert if there's no room on the line for that first section of the word, or if that word's not near the end of the line with current formatting! But it will remain there in that spot for possible use when needed, as can be seen using the right and left arrow keys to move through the text. Also, the soft hyphen will NOT be seen when it's not deployed, even if you "Show Invisables". It can only be detected when it's in use or by the arrow keys.

Thank you Ian, for testing that. Now we know it works in more recent operating systems!

Peter and Barry: You seem to assume that I know in advance when I'll need soft hyphens. A friend I talked with IRL seemed to have the same reaction, thinking I had technical words I know I want to break a certain way. But that's not my usage.

I use soft hyphen (now that I have found it!) in situations where Pages thinks it looks better to keep the word together but I want to fit just a little more on a line so that I can maximize word count in a column, newspaper style—particularly when I have just a word or two that make the column uneven.