When Microsoft Word calculates the width of a line of text, and then wraps the text to the next line, it tries to break the line at either a space or a hyphen.  You may not want Word to break the line at a specific space.  For example, to make sure that two adjacent words, or characters, appear on the same line. 

In a transcript, for example, you may use a "double dash" (--) to end a line when a speaker is interrupted
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If this occurs at the end of a line of text, the (--) will drop down to the next line:

A hanging (--) on a line by itself looks odd in a transcript, and often goes against formatting requirements for the Courts.
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To work around this issue, we suggest using the hard space feature.  When typing the text in the image above "getting him to --", rather than just spacing after "to", use the key combo cntrl + shift + space.  This will create a hard space between the text "to" and the "--" so they will always sit on the same line.  
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In the first video below, a normal space is used, notice the "--" ends up on line 21 by itself:

In the second video, a "hard space" is used.  Notice the "--" and the "to" text are both on line 21:
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If you display hidden characters in Word (link below) the "hard space" is displayed as a different character.  In the first image below, a standard space is used:

In the second image below, a "hard space" is used:
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If you have any questions, you can reach us via chat, below, or via email, customersuccess@trxchange.com