Can I create a non-breaking character

  • Thread starter Thread starter Margo
  • Start date Start date
Characters themselves do not have the charateristic of
determining non-breaking spaces. You can of course insert
a non-breaking space before or after the hyphen, en, or em-
dash, which should net you the same result. Ctrl + Shift +
Spacebar.

jesse
 
I wish! This is something I've been begging MS for for quite some time. I
usually end up either recasting the text or inserting a line break to get
the break where I want it (not at the en dash). One workaround is to use a
minus sign (character 2212, in the Mathematical Operators character subset)
instead of an en dash. It's about the same width and weight and is
inherently nonbreaking.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Is there a way to create a non-breaking en dash (such as
the non-breaking hyphen)?
Click to expand...

You could probably do it by putting a zero-width-non-breaking-space
character before and after the en dash. It should be at U+FFFF

Bob S
 
Is there a way to create a non-breaking en dash (such as


Bob S said:
You could probably do it by putting a zero-width-non-breaking-space
character before and after the en dash. It should be at U+FFFF
Click to expand...


Would be nice if U+FEFF worked that way; but it doesn't seem to
(Word2002/2003).

Greetings,
Klaus
 
In Word 2002, On the Menu bar: Insert|Symbol, Special Characters Tab,
No-Width Non Break (the last entry)

Gordo
 
Also Control+Shift+Hyphen

Judy Freed

gordo said:
In Word 2002, On the Menu bar: Insert|Symbol, Special Characters Tab,
No-Width Non Break (the last entry)

Gordo
Click to expand...
 
A hyphen is not an en dash.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
You could probably do it by putting a zero-width-non-breaking-space
gordo said:
In Word 2002, On the Menu bar: Insert|Symbol, Special Characters Tab,
No-Width Non Break (the last entry)

Gordo
Click to expand...


That inserts the wrong character, the "zero width joiner" U+200D.

Haven't tested if it can be used to keep characters or word together on a
line.

It didn't use to work in Word2000, as far as I remember.
And probably, U+200D would be the wrong character for the job anyway (... it
should create ligatures between two characters, as far as I can make out
from the description in the Unicode Standard).

Regards,
Klaus
 
That inserts the wrong character, the "zero width joiner" U+200D.

Haven't tested if it can be used to keep characters or word together on a
line.

It didn't use to work in Word2000, as far as I remember.
And probably, U+200D would be the wrong character for the job anyway (... it
should create ligatures between two characters, as far as I can make out
from the description in the Unicode Standard).

Regards,
Klaus
Click to expand...

If I understand the Unicode documents correctly, U+FFFF has been
withdrawn from use in Unicode 3.0.1, and reserved for internal use
only! It is on the slippery slope toward deprecation. So apparently
there is no more zero width non-breaking space in Unicode.

U+200D seems to be originally intended to "encourage" the renderer to
produce cursive connection letter forms (for Arabic for example) or
ligatures in places where they might otherwise not occur, while
occupying no space on the line. Given that Word doesn't do anything
about ligatures, using this code point to prevent line breaks doesn't
seem too unreasonable, particularly given the absence of alternatives.

It seems to work in Word 2002, I don't know about earlier versions.

Bob S
 
Hi Bob,
If I understand the Unicode documents correctly, U+FFFF has been
withdrawn from use in Unicode 3.0.1, and reserved for internal use
only! It is on the slippery slope toward deprecation. So apparently
there is no more zero width non-breaking space in Unicode.
Click to expand...

U+FEFF is being deprecated, since it's main use is as a byte order mark. The
Unicode standard says that applications should continue to treat it as a
zero-width no break space.
In version 4, the preferred character for this use is U+2060 (word joiner).
And if there wasn't an alternative, MS would be free to use any "private
use" character for the purpose.

MS always has confused those characters, long before U+FEFF was deprecated.
And I haven't seen any progress in Word97/2000/2002/2003 beyond Unicode
version 2 yet.
U+200D seems to be originally intended to "encourage" the renderer
to produce cursive connection letter forms (for Arabic for example) or
ligatures in places where they might otherwise not occur, while
occupying no space on the line. Given that Word doesn't do anything
about ligatures, using this code point to prevent line breaks doesn't
seem too unreasonable, particularly given the absence of alternatives.
Click to expand...

I would think that a terrible idea, and don't think MS messed this up on
purpose.
Especially since they confused the zero-width space U+200B and the
zero-width non-joiner U+200C in just the same way.
It seems to work in Word 2002, I don't know about earlier versions.
Click to expand...

U+200D doesn't seem to keep words together either in my German Word 2000 and
2002, nor in my English Word2003.
U+FEFF does work in all three versions. U+2060 isn't supported at all (not
surprising, since it's new in Unicode 4).

If I insert U+200D at any hyphenation point, Word just keeps on breaking the
line at that point.

Greetings,
Klaus
 
U+200D doesn't seem to keep words together either in my German Word 2000 and
2002, nor in my English Word2003.
U+FEFF does work in all three versions. U+2060 isn't supported at all (not
surprising, since it's new in Unicode 4).

If I insert U+200D at any hyphenation point, Word just keeps on breaking the
line at that point.
Click to expand...

On my English Word 2002, U+200D and U+FEFF seem to work exactly the
same. They work between ordinary letters, and when surrounding a
non-breaking hyphen, but they don't work when surrounding ordinary
hyphens or dahses.

Bob S
 
Bob S said:
On my English Word 2002, U+200D and U+FEFF seem to work exactly
the same. They work between ordinary letters, and when surrounding a
non-breaking hyphen, but they don't work when surrounding ordinary
hyphens or dahses.
Click to expand...


Hi Bob,

Can't quite follow you. Word doesn't break after non-breaking hyphens
anyway, so what difference should U+200D or U+FEFF make?

It always allows line breaks after ordinary hyphens or dashes. Neither
U+200D nor U+FEFF can prevent that.

Greetings,
Klaus
 
Hi Bob,

Can't quite follow you. Word doesn't break after non-breaking hyphens
anyway, so what difference should U+200D or U+FEFF make?
Click to expand...

Hopefully none, but after seeing it fail with ordinary dashes I
figured it was worth trying.
It always allows line breaks after ordinary hyphens or dashes. Neither
U+200D nor U+FEFF can prevent that.
Click to expand...

So it seems, too bad.
 
Back
Top