Minus sign and corresponding number get split across consecutive l

[wildetudor]

I have a lot of numbers in a rather narrow paragraph. Some of them are
negative, and inevitably, it sometimes happens that the minus sign gets split
across line breaks, such that I have, for example:

The slope value was -
0.4, which indicates
that....

This can be confusing for readers. Is there a setting that can be made in
Word 2007 which ensures that this does not happen, and that the minus sign
stays close to the number?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

[Lene Fredborg]

Try to replace the minus sign with a non-breaking minus sign (Unicode
character 2212).

You can insert the non-breaking minus sign via Insert > Symbol or via the
keyboard (type 2212, then press Alt+X and Word will replace 2212 by the minus
sign).

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg - Microsoft MVP (Word)
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[wildetudor]

Thanks very much!

It would be great if there were a way to do this automatically, rather me
having to type 2212 and Alt+X every single time I insert a negative number
into the document (it's a big document, with lots of numbers...). Can this be
done in Word?

 

[macropod]

Hi wildetudor,

You can overcome this by inputting the minus signs as non-breaking hypens (via Ctrl-Shift-Hyphen). For any existing minus signs, you
can 'fix' them via Find/Replace, using '-' as the Find text and '^~' as the Replace text.

 

[Lene Fredborg]

You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the non-breaking minus sign:
Open the Symbol dialog box. Select the non-breaking minus sign (you can find
the character e.g. by selecting Font: (normal text), Character code: 2212,
from: Unicode (hex)). While the character is selected, click the Shortcut Key
button in the dialog box and assign the desired shortcut.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg - Microsoft MVP (Word)
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[grammatim]

But a minus sign isn't a hyphen -- it's an en-dash (in some fonts, the
minus sign character is at a different height from the en-dash
character). Hence the non-breaking minus sign identified by Lene.

Hi wildetudor,

You can overcome this by inputting the minus signs as non-breaking hypens(via Ctrl-Shift-Hyphen). For any existing minus signs, you
can 'fix' them via Find/Replace, using '-' as the Find text and '^~' as the Replace text.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I have a lot of numbers in a rather narrow paragraph. Some of them are
negative, and inevitably, it sometimes happens that the minus sign getssplit
across line breaks, such that I have, for example:

The slope value was -
0.4, which indicates
that....

This can be confusing for readers. Is there a setting that can be made in
Word 2007 which ensures that this does not happen, and that the minus sign
stays close to the number?

Thanks in advance for any tips!-