In a previous post we looked at the difference between a hyphen and a dash and we saw that there are two dashes. Here you will learn how to write a dash on a computer keyboard.

Learn how to write a dash on a computer

In some applications, such as Microsoft Word, Scrivener and Google Docs, you can type two hyphens and a space and you will get an em dash.

Mac OS:

En dash: option+hyphen
Em dash: shift+option+hyphen

Windows:

On a keyboard with a numeric keypad:

En dash: alt+0150
Em dash: alt+0151

In Microsoft Word you can go to Insert>Symbol and choose Special characters and you will find the en dash and the em dash.

There is another way in Word: [word][space][hyphen][hyphen][space][word] results in an en dash. To get an em dash, do the same without spaces.

In Word you can also create an autocorrect option. Go to Tools, click on Autocorrect and add the following shortcuts: Replace .en with – and Replace .em with —

Now when you want to write an em dash, you write .em followed by a space.