# M$ Word Help ! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2002, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592 "2002-08-06T12:25:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andy\_fl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/1 "2002-08-06T12:25:10Z")
When you Justify a paragraph in Word, it increases the spacing between words to fit into each line. Can it be made to maintain the same space between words and instead hyphenate the words at the end of the line ?? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/2 "2002-08-06T12:48:57Z")
I don’t know if word is sm- art enough to know wher- e to stick in the hypenatio- n ---
**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/3 "2002-08-06T13:02:30Z")
Okay, this seems to work in Word 2000… 1. Choose “Language” from the “Tools” menu. 2. Select “Hyphenation”. 3. Tick the “Automatically Hyphenate Document” check box. 4. Click OK. 5. Hightlight all the text and justify in the normal way (i.e. clicking the “Justify” button on the Formating toolbar). Hope that hopes! ---
**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/4 "2002-08-06T13:05:36Z")
Erm… hope that helps, even. :smack: Note to self: **PREVIEW!!** …and clean out the fish tank. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/5 "2002-08-06T13:58:28Z")
Unfortunately, the program isn’t any good finding words to hyphenate. I ended up doing it by hand. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/6 "2002-08-06T15:37:43Z")
Manual hyphenation is (IMHO) best done by inserting a CTRL-HYPHEN at the point you want to hyphenate it. That is called an “optional hyphen” and it will become invisible if you make changes to that paragraph which cause the word to move away from the margin. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/7 "2002-08-07T05:20:24Z")
I didn’t mean inserting a hyphen in the word myself. I meant selecting the word, then choose Tools \> Hyphenation \> Manual. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/8 "2002-08-07T05:28:24Z")
I didn’t mean inserting a hyphen in the word myself. I meant selecting the word, then choose Tools \> Hyphenation \> Manual. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michele_in_SoCal)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/9 "2002-08-07T07:34:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keeve \* > \*\*Manual hyphenation is (IMHO) best done by inserting a CTRL-HYPHEN at the point you want to hyphenate it. That is called an “optional hyphen” and it will become invisible if you make changes to that paragraph which cause the word to move away from the margin. \*\* OOooo Keeve! Thanks! I never knew this. I just tested it and it works beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-word-help/122592/10 "2002-08-07T13:31:14Z")
Glad to help, Michele. Other odd characters are at Insert / Symbol / SpecialCharacters. For example “control-underscore” gives you a “non-breaking hyphen”, which will _refuse_ to break at the end of a line.