UNHCE Information Technology & Distance Education Blog

From The Office Letter:

Works with Word 97 and above

Word's hyphenation feature helps you achieve a neater (that is, more even) right margin by breaking words into syllables. Without it, especially when you place text in columns, you'll find your right margin can be quite ragged. If you have set Justify to on (so that text will align against both the left and right margins), using hyphens means you don't have to use as many big gaps between words -- which makes for an awkward look.

To turn hyphenation on, use the Tools/Language/Hyphenation command. Word opens the Hyphenation dialog box. Choose the options you want to use:

• Automatically hyphenate document lets Word hyphenate as you type. The option is turned off by default, possibly because the process of hyphenating a word while you're typing can be distracting.


• Hyphenate words in CAPS will do just what it says. It's useful for breaking acronyms, such as UNICEF into UNI and CEF. This option is "on" be default. I've found that the algorithm Word uses to split acronyms is quite "smart."


• Hyphenation zone is the amount of space you can have between the text at the end of a line and the right margin. The larger the zone, the fewer the number of hyphens you'll have.


• The "Limit consecutive hyphens to" option lets you enter the number of consecutive lines that can be hyphenated. No limit means that, theoretically, every line can be hyphenated -- which will look dreadful. I prefer to set this option to 2 or 3.

To override hyphenation for a word (especially for compound words and acronyms that include a hyphen but where you don't want to break on that hyphen), replace the standard hyphen with a non-breaking hyphen. When you are typing, type Ctrl + Shift + - (Ctrl, Shift, and a hyphen simultaneously) instead of a regular hyphen. Word will now keep text immediately on either side of this non-breaking hyphen together on the same line. I use this option to keep all letters in the acronym AFL-CIO together.

If you want to override a hyphenation choice Word has made (to break a word at a different position, for example), insert an "optional" hyphen. Move your cursor to the preferred break point and press Ctrl + - (Ctrl and a hyphen). This optional hyphen won't appear if the word doesn't need to be hyphenated.

A final technique for overriding Word's splits is to use the Manual option. Select the section (typically a word or a section) to hyphenate (you can select nothing to hyphenate the entire document). Use the Tools/Language/Hyphenate command. Be sure the "Automatically hyphenate document" option is not checked. Word displays the selected word (or first word in the selection that can be hyphenated) with all possible hyphens. Use the left or right arrow key to move to (or just click on) the hyphen you want to use. Choose "Yes."

If you are selecting a large amount of text (or the entire document), this option may not be desirable, since you must confirm each proposed word split -- a process that can quickly become tedious.

Finally, you can exclude sections of text from automatic hyphenation. Select the section you don't want hyphenated, then use the Tools/Language/Set Language command, and check the "Do not check spelling or grammar" box. Unfortunately, in addition to skipping hyphenation, Word won't spell check or grammar check the selected text.