Hyphens in Word

[Segilla]

Can anyone explain why, when inputting a hyphen, a long one appears on screen, but if it later deleted, then replaced by depressing the same key, a shorter one appears?

[ACtheTROLL]

I also hate smart quotes

tools | autocorrect | autoformat as you type

take the tick out of hyphens with dash

also do autoformat

[fo3nix]

Because Word doesn't have a clue about good typography.

[Segilla]

You bet!
Using their symbol, I have Copied Word's attempt at 'Athenaeum' and it exhibits correctly here as 'Athen�um' but in my document it looks more like 'Athenoeum', because of wrong use of the lower case 'a'. However, to try to be fair, when comparing the two side by side, their 'oe' dipthong does look a liitle different from their 'ae'.
.

[Segilla]

Well done Answerbank!
I Copied the ae dipthong from my previous message, and although it took Word a while to think about it, it correctly Pasted the symbol into my text. Had there been a font size 13 it would be perfect but 12 is too small and 14 jusr a little too large, but 14 wil have to do.

[fo3nix]

Depending what you're doing with it, have a look into LaTeX.

It's a markup language that you type out, so it's harder to use initially then Word. But the typography is so much better than Word, especially for mathematical typesetting. It's also easier (in my opinion) to add contents pages, bibliographies, etc.

[Segilla]

Thanks fo3nix. I've been transcribing from a book and only very occasionally was there a need to use any unusual symbols. I notice that Wiki ducks the ae dipthong but that may be an American style.

[lilsecret]

Segilla - when you are using word you CAN get 13 font size.

Highlight the characters, then click on FORMAT at top of page. Then click on Font, a window will appear, and then in the top right hand corner you will see SIZE - you can manually change this to anything you want up to size 1,638.

[Segilla]

Thanks lilsecret. Took a while to sort out as it's part of a word, but is OK now in 13 font size. But the ae symbol has to be in Calabria as TImes NR (which I prefer to these sans serif fonts) uses the oe lookalike.

All's well that ends well!