em dashes mishandled

[Aaron Shepard]

I wonder if others reading this newsgroup are as disturbed as I am by
the mishandling of em dashes (Option-Shift-Hyphen) in Word for the Mac
only. This has been going on for almost a decade. I've written Microsoft
numerous times about it, but with no results. (I'm still on Word 2001
for OS 9, so if it has changed in Word X, I apologize in advance.)

The problem is that Word for the Mac, ever since version 6, has refused
to automatically break a line following an em dash when the em dash
_should_ fall at the end of the line. In terms of line breaks, an em
dash should act like a hyphen: The line should be able to break
immediately after the em dash, even if it's not followed by a space --
and in standard usage, the em dash should _not_ be followed by a space.

Instead, in Word for the Mac, an em dash with no space before or after
is meshed with the surrounding words as if they were all one word. When
the line _should_ end with the em dash, both words and the em dash are
moved as one unit to the next line. In flush left text, this leaves a
huge gap at the end of the first line. In justified text, this leaves
unacceptably large spacing between the words on that line.

This is not "just the way it is." Word for the PC does not do this! And
neither did Word for the Mac before version 6. It's a gross typographic
error and an incompatibility between Mac and PC.

The work-around is to find the problem lines and place a manual line
break after the em dash. What I would give to not have to do that!

Does anyone know how we can get this fixed?

Aaron

Aaron Shepard
Author of Books, Typography, and Microsoft Word
http://www.aaronshep.com/publishing

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I wonder if others reading this newsgroup are as disturbed as I am by
the mishandling of em dashes (Option-Shift-Hyphen) in Word for the Mac
only. This has been going on for almost a decade. I've written Microsoft
numerous times about it, but with no results. (I'm still on Word 2001
for OS 9, so if it has changed in Word X, I apologize in advance.)

The problem is that Word for the Mac, ever since version 6, has refused
to automatically break a line following an em dash when the em dash
_should_ fall at the end of the line. In terms of line breaks, an em
dash should act like a hyphen: The line should be able to break
immediately after the em dash, even if it's not followed by a space --
and in standard usage, the em dash should _not_ be followed by a space.

Instead, in Word for the Mac, an em dash with no space before or after
is meshed with the surrounding words as if they were all one word. When
the line _should_ end with the em dash, both words and the em dash are
moved as one unit to the next line. In flush left text, this leaves a
huge gap at the end of the first line. In justified text, this leaves
unacceptably large spacing between the words on that line.

This is not "just the way it is." Word for the PC does not do this! And
neither did Word for the Mac before version 6. It's a gross typographic
error and an incompatibility between Mac and PC.

The work-around is to find the problem lines and place a manual line
break after the em dash. What I would give to not have to do that!

Does anyone know how we can get this fixed?

Send feedback on Word from the Help Menu in Word. I have a feeling they know
about this one - I'd say there's hope.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - 2001 or X.
It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Aaron,

I have to say I use em dashes all the time and this behavior has never
bothered me, but I'll happily complain along with you next time I am in the
mood, since it is clearly incorrect.

Word 2001 doesn't have a Feedback option in the Help menu (X does, that's
what Paul is suggesting), but this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp

goes straight to the Mac Business Unit, so send suggestions there. The
general MS feedback is (e-mail address removed), but I don't know that I trust
it to properly redirect Mac comments. The Mac feedback form is linked
somewhere from Mactopia.com, though as I remember it isn't the easiest thing
to find. They are apparently in the midst of developing the next Word, so
this is a good moment to send comments.

Also, re your workaround, I wonder if using a space formatted as 1 point
instead of a manual line break would eliminate any need to ever go back and
fix the workaround after editing the file. I'm not sure how a tiny space
prints out visually, but you could even set AutoCorrect to replace -- with
an em dash and the tiny space after it, and never have to worry about it
(b/c searching Print Preview for these instances must be a real chore). I'm
just speculating, but it seems to me this might work, even though it's
really *not* something you should have to do!

Dayo

 

[Klaus Kamppeter]

Instead, in Word for the Mac, an em dash with no space before or after
is meshed with the surrounding words as if they were all one word. When
the line _should_ end with the em dash, both words and the em dash are
moved as one unit to the next line. In flush left text, this leaves a
huge gap at the end of the first line. In justified text, this leaves
unacceptably large spacing between the words on that line.

In Spanish em dashes are used the same way like parenthesis. For this
use, the way Word keeps the dashes with the text is the correct one. In
Word 98 even spell checking worked fine with this use of dashes. In Word
2001 not any more; it's indicated as en ortografic mistake.

Ciao