# Word 2007: Dash in the beginning of a line

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 4, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507 "2010-07-04T12:16:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507/1 "2010-07-04T12:16:48Z")

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If I use a hyphen (minus sign) in Word it automatically makes a dash of it, if followed by a empty space and then a character. However, when I hit enter, space twice, a hyphen, and starts to write, Word won’t make a dash out of it. (The same happens, or does not happen, if I hit two hyphens.)

I’ve been checking Word options (AutoCorrection) and tried different things back and forth, but I can’t get Word to make dash out of one or two hyphens in the beginning of a new line. Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507/2 "2010-07-04T13:13:08Z")

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I would suggest simply manually typing the dash. The keyboard shortcut for an em-dash in Microsoft Word is Ctrl + Shift + - (In other words, simultaneously press the Control key, the Shift key, and the minus sign.)

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**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507/3 "2010-07-10T14:53:09Z")

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Thanks for your suggestion; it doesn’t seem to work in the beginning of a line. At first i autoformats, but when I say don’t do that, it stops, but there’s a minus, not a dash.

I find this most peculiar. If I’m writing a dialogue in MS Word, how am I supposed to do that, if I want to begin every reply with two blanks and then a hyphen?

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**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507/4 "2010-07-11T14:32:50Z")

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Ok, what you can do is open “insert symbol” and find the dash sign. Mark it and click Keyboard Shortcut (I believe – my Word is Swedish). Remove the one that’s there (which is a bit cumbersome and won’t work very well on a typical laptop). Choose a for instance Ctrl±, instead. Also, remove that the autocorrection which makes a bulleted list out of any line beginning with a dash.

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**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-2007-dash-in-the-beginning-of-a-line/545507/5 "2010-07-11T23:30:34Z")

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> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> I would suggest simply manually typing the dash. The keyboard shortcut for an em-dash in Microsoft Word is Ctrl + Shift + - (In other words, simultaneously press the Control key, the Shift key, and the minus sign.)

That’s an en dash. The easy way to do an em dash is to press Ctrl+Alt+minus (but use the minus key on the numeric keypad). This works at the beginning of a line.