How do you make an em-dash? How about an en-dash?

[wackadoo wabbit]

I've looked around, but I can't seem to find any instructions. The only way I've found to do it thus far is to copy it from somewhere else and then paste it here, which seems a bit unwieldy.

Thanks for any help!

[mike_c]

1. on a windows system?

alt-0150 for an en dash or alt-0151 for an em dash. The character should appear when you release the alt key: – or —.

[wackadoo wabbit]

3. Sorry, I should have specified, "How do you make an em-dash on DU?"

When I try alt-0151, at first it appears to be a true em-dash, but when I preview my post it shows up as two hyphens.

[mike_c]

8. sorry I clicked post to soon

I presume you're trying to use an em dash in the title line. It looks like DU strips out unicode and html in the title block. They work fine in the message text.

[wackadoo wabbit]

10. Yes, I see that now. Thanks so much for the info! (n/t)

[The Blue Flower]

2. Do you mean in a Word document?

Or on a keyboard?

[wackadoo wabbit]

4. Sorry, I should have specified, "How do you make an em-dash on DU?" (n/t)

[CurtEastPoint]

5. in a post here? ALT 0151 and ALT 0150 (M and N)

Subject lines act differently here w/special chars. They don't work.

m —
n –

[wackadoo wabbit]

9. OK, that's why I thought it wasn't working!

In the subject line, it came up as two hyphens.

Thanks so much for the info!

[CurtEastPoint]

12. Sure. I've tried to put words w/accented e's and they either disappear or are just regular e's

It's an annoyance I wish the powers that be would fix.

[happybird]

6. With an iphone or ipad

Tap and hold the dash key and the other dash choices will appear. Slide your finger to the one you want and release.
IIRC, it works the same was on Android devices.

[jberryhill]

11. OP doesn't seem to want to specify a device or OS

[wackadoo wabbit]

13. It's not at all that I didn't want to specify a device

It's just that the problem was solved before I read happybird's post.

For the record, I'm using a PC running Firefox.

[hunter]

14. Why?

If you are writing in English, stick to ASCII.

em-dash is two dashes and done.

It can be replaced later if you are going to publish a book or something.

I feel the same about quote marks and apostrophes.

There's software for that.

I write in markdown.

It makes no difference here on DU if I write italics this way or *this* way.

[Make7]

15. You can use HTML entities to display the various dashes.

For example:

Em-dash = — displays —
En-dash = – displays –
Minus sign = − displays −
Hyphen = - displays - (that should be what using your keyboard shows)

NOTE: when using HTML entities in your post titles, previewing the post will change them into the actual characters - be sure to hit the back button on your browser to restore the HTML entities before hitting the 'Post my reply' button.