Hyphens on keyboard

[Khandro]

The penultimate key on the top row contains a hyphen and in upper case a dash which shows up lower and longer than the hyphen, what is the purpose of this symbol please? It cannot be used to underline anything or can it? and the only time I see it used is in email addresses.
I've just been asked this question and I'm damned if I know the answer.

[factor-fiction]

I've seen the underscore ( _ ) in email addresses and in URLs. I can't immediately think of any other uses other than perhaps in some emoticons

[bibblebub]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore

[factor-fiction]

This may be of interest.
It was used for underlining in the days of typewriters but you had to move the carriage back, I recall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore

[furrypusscat]

I believe It is an underline if used with another key but never have used it. What I do use if for is to make a continuous line for peoples answers when setting my quizzes.

[andrew1707]

It's good for creating file names or database field names that have no spaces between the words where a space would not be a good idea:

Monthly_Sales_Figures
Andrew_on_holiday.jpg
etc

[Fitzer]

It's an underscore and in the days of typewriters it was used to underline things, you typed your word and then backspaced and typed the underscore under each letter. In post typewiter days some programming languages use it to break up the name of a procedure as you can't have spaces and user_update_account is easier to read than userupdateaccount

[factor-fiction]

If course, yes- I use it quite a bit for drawing lines on Word documents- for example when writing a questions for school classes to indicate the place where the answer is to be written:
Question: If 2 apples cost 70p how much would 7 apples cost?
Answer: ______________________________________

[Khandro]

Thanks to all. I had an awful feeling that there was something I'd missed out on all this time. like; if it was used in conjunction with something else you could underline a word, - which would be simpler than the usual method of having to highlight and go into 'font' etc.

[vetuste_ennemi]

It's part of my name, Khandro; I wouldn't be without it.

[Khandro]

factor30; £2 and 9 shillings ?

[Ellipsis]

> which would be simpler than the usual method of having to highlight and go into 'font' etc

Normally you can just highlight and hit Ctrl-U (for underscore), Ctrl-B (for bold) and/or Ctrl-I (for italics).

[Khandro]

ellipsis; I just tried your method, but then as you continue everything seems to be then underlined, unless you go to 'font' and uncheck 'underline' and then 'OK'.

[Ellipsis]

Hi Khandro

Highlight then Ctrl-U behaves exactly the same as Highlight then Menu then Font then Underline then OK, i.e. if you then put your cursor precisely at the end of the underlined text and carry on typing, whatever you type will be underlined. It isn't because you used Ctrl-U - that's the way underline works however you underline.

However, if you type Ctrl-U again before you start typing (but after you've deselected the highlighted text) then whatever you type won't be underlined. Ctrl-U switched back and forth between Underline and Non-Underline mode. Likewise for Ctrl-B (bold) and Ctrl-I (italic).

[Khandro]

ellipsis; Just tried your revised method and it works! (but not in AB, it seems, as I just tried to underline 'it works') Thank you; - one learns something new every day.

[Ellipsis]

Hi Khandro

You're welcome. It only works when you're in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment, such as Word, Wordpad or Gmail - not a plain text environment such as Notepad or Answerbank.