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
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.
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.
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:
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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