Microsoft Word 2003/2004
Hyphenation Options
When typing a document, words may be divided with hyphenation. Word 2003/2004 has several options for controlling how and when this hyphenation can occur. You should wait to hyphenate your document until after you have finished writing and editing because later additions and deletions of text may affect where line breaks occur.
- Hyphenating Automatically
- Hyphenating Manually
- Inserting an Optional Hyphen
- Inserting a Non-breaking Hyphen
Hyphenating Automatically
-
Windows: From the Tools menu, select Language » Hyphenation...
Macintosh: From the Tools menu, select Hyphenation...
The Hyphenation dialog box appears.
-
Select Automatically hyphenate document
-
OPTIONAL: In the Hyphenation zone text box, type or use the nudge buttons to indicate the amount of space to leave between the end of the last word in a line and the right margin
HINTS:
To reduce the number of hyphens, make the hyphenation zone wider.
To allow more hyphens, make the hyphenation zone narrower. -
OPTIONAL: In the Limit consecutive hyphens to text box, type or use the nudge buttons to indicate the number of consecutive lines that can be hyphenated
NOTE: In some documents, the number of consecutively hyphenated lines should be limited. Particularly in narrow columns, consecutive hyphenation can cause the sentences to look fragmented. -
Click OK
Automatic hyphenation is set.
Hyphenating Manually
If you have already typed text into your document, you can select manual hyphenation. Word will search the document for words to hyphenate and then ask you whether to include a hyphen and where to position it.
-
Windows: From the Tools menu, select Language » Hyphenation...
Macintosh: From the Tools menu, select Hyphenation...
The Hyphenation dialog box appears. -
Click MANUAL...
The Manual Hyphenation dialog box appears with the first instance of possible hyphenation found in your document.
NOTES:
Word will suggest grammatically correct hyphenation divisions.
The vertical line shows where the line would break the word, so the chosen hyphenation must be before that vertical line. If hyphenation after the vertical line is chosen, the word will not be broken.
Macintosh: The suggested hyphenation break is shown highlighted and flashing.
-
To set the hyphen in another location, place the insertion point in the desired hyphenation location
To accept the hyphenation, click YES
If you do not want to hyphenate the word, click NO
Word then locates the next word you may want to hyphenate. -
To cancel the manual hyphenation process, click CANCEL
Inserting an Optional Hyphen
Inserting an optional hyphen allows you to control where to break a word or phrase if it should happen to fall at the end of a line (e.g., tech-nology for technology). If the word or phrase falls in the middle or at the beginning of a line, the optional hyphen does not appear in the printed document.
-
Click where you want to insert the optional hyphen
-
Windows: Press [Ctrl] + [ - ] (hyphen)
Macintosh: Press [command] + [ - ] (hyphen)
The optional hyphen is inserted.
Inserting a Non-breaking Hyphen
Inserting a non-breaking hyphen will prevent a hyphenated word or phrase from breaking at the end of a line if you want to keep that word or phrase together (e.g., UW-Eau Claire).
-
Click where you want to insert the non-breaking hyphen
-
Windows: Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [ - ] (hyphen)
Macintosh: Press [command] + [shift] + [ - ] (hyphen)
The non-breaking hyphen is inserted.
