Hyphenation not recognized in a specific word

[susnpb02]

Formatting a document, activitate hyphenation. A certain word used very
frequently in my document, plus all of its variations, will not
automatically hyphenate. Other words hyphenate with no problem. No
variation of this word works. The word is in the Word Dictionary and
each variation of it shows appropriate breaks (dots) where the word
correctly breaks into sylables.

Because the word/variation thereof apprears so frequently in my
document, I effectively get a "gap tooth" look to my right edge. Don't
want to justify the right edge. Also, don't want to have to manually
insert so many hyphens (that's not working well either) and want to be
able to add or delete a word in a line without having unnecessary
hyphens in words.

Help would be very appreciated.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Is there some reason why you can't tell us what the word is? It might help
if we could try to replicate what you're seeing.

Also, when you post back, please state your OS and Office/Word version
numbers.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
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Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[susnpb02]

The root word is homeschool. Deriviations are homeschooling,
homeschooler, etc. As mentioned, each of these words appears in the
Word Dictionary and each is properly broken into syllables there.

My OS is Mac 10.3.9 and the Office/Word version is 2001.

Between my original post and this one, I realized where one problem may
have been but went back to a previous problem. I used homeschooling and
variations thereof with some frequency. When I was using it in word
documents, ineviably all variations would come up for spell check, even
though the word(s) were spelled correctly in the User dictionary
(preferred spelling is one word). So, I recently created a Custom
Dictionary and added homeschooling-related words.

I thought that I would try to delete the custom dictionary (not many
words in it) and see if hyphenation capabilites returned for my word.
They did.

Question 1: Why does homeschooling come up in a spell check if it is
in the User Dictionary and has been all along?
Question 2: If you add words to a Custom Dictionary, how does
hyphenation recognize them?

Thanks for any help.

susan

 

[susnpb02]

May I take back what I just said? Sorry for confusion. I tried creating
some text and tested hyphenation on a test document. Hyphenation seemed
to work. But, on the formatted document which I am trying to complete
and circulate to colleagues, the hyphenation of homeschooling and other
related words is still a definite problem....that is, it will not
hyphenate.

What am I missing?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You know how if you run SpellCheck, and you tell it to ignore misspelled
words, it will keep on ignoring the words even when you run SpellCheck
again? I wonder if something similar could be happening here?

So maybe try an Insert | File into a new document, to get a new version of
the same document. Then see if it hyphenates.

If that still doesn't work, try doing a Find & Replace where you Find
"homeschool" and Replace it with "home-school" with an optional hyphen. I
would try this ON A COPY. You can enter the optional hyphen into the F&R
box by clicking More, then using the Special menu.

 

[Clive Huggan]

And another work-around:

1. Make paragraph marks visible if not already visible (you can then see
the optional hyphen when you type it).

2. Type "home[Command-hyphen]school" <== excluding the double quotation
marks and the square brackets and the brackets' contents, in other words you
type "homeschool" with an optional hyphen between the "e" and the "s";
"Command-hyphen" means to hold down the Command (apple) key and hit the
hyphen key -- this forms an optional hyphen that will only be visible if the
word wants to split at the end of the line.

3. Select the word.

4. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect.

5. Click on the "Formatted text" radio button. You'll see the term you
typed and selected in the right-hand field.

6. Type "homeschool" in the left-hand ("Replace") field. Add. OK.

7. Repeat for homeschooling and homeschooled.

Every time you type any of these three words, Word will instantly,
automatically and transparently replace the word with another containing the
optional hyphen -- in effect doing the same as hyphenation does. This will
occur irrespective of whether automatic hyphenation is on or off, or whether
you have the problem you describe.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[susnpb02]

Thank you. The combination of the last two suggestions worked well. I
was not aware of the effect that having the paragraph marks visible
would have on how the document with optional hyphens would look. I kept
seeing hyphens with a small perpendicular line at the end and thought
that is what each hyphen would look like in printing. Turning off
visible paragraphing marks makes the hyphens appear regular and the
words relating to homeschool break appropriately when necessary at line
endings between the syllable "home" and "school". I can live with it
but am still perplexed...

What if the word would most appropriately break at "homeschool" and
"ing"? Or "homeschool" and "er"? Maybe it is one of those "That's just
the way it is" but I cannot understand why homeschool and several of
its derivations are in the User Dictionary with appropriate
syllabification but 1) constantly come up in spell check and 2) will
not automatically hyphenate like other words.

Thanks for the work-around and for your expertise in this.

Susan

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Words hyphenated at -ing just sounds very strange to me. Has anyone seen
this in published work? I think it would be very weird to be reading and
see
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah homeschool-
ing
-er starting a line strikes me as even more strange.

Key point to clear up your confusion: If you are using Word 2004, the Tools
|Dictionary or the right-click Define... is from Encarta and is totally
unrelated to the proofing tools that Word uses to hyphenate, spellcheck,
etc. Totally separate entities, holding separate information.

If you add homeschool and its variations to a custom dictionary, spellcheck
will not flag it. Help on Custom Dictionary will help out there.

On 4/25/05 5:21 AM, "(e-mail address removed)" wrote:

 

[Clive Huggan]

Susan,

You can of course set up AutoCorrect entries with an optional hyphen before
the "ing" in addition to as described before. If you have already set up
entries, you would replace them with the new ones.

As for what mysteries underlie Word's myriad idiosyncrasies, I generally go
by Elliott Roper's "phases of the moon" theory ... ;-)

Daiya, I'm delighted to see you have strong preferences for what looks
appropriate in hyphenation. I look for howlers such as "cow-orkers" in
newspapers which have not enjoyed the glance of a human eye before going on
the delivery trucks!

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

* A SUGGESTION ‹ WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
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