# inserting an em-dash in Scrivener



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I can't seem to do it. When I try to copy/paste one in from Word (2010 PC), I either get a blank or a funny character. Don't ebooks support em-dashes? I don't want to use a double en-dash -- for one, that looks amateurish.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

I have Scrivener for Windows and -- converts to an em dash. Maybe there's a way to turn this on and off? If so, I don't know it.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

JRHenderson said:


> Hold down the "Option" key (next to the Command/Apple key) and hit the "dash" key.


Windows shortcut, please?


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

doesn't work. Option (alt on a windows machine)  dash only gives me an en dash.

And I have the need for lots of em dashes in this project.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Windows shortcut, please?


You'll have to ask Microsoft. 
The one they provide is Ctrl+Alt+[numpad minus], and it tends to alter the zoom, instead.

Does entering two dashes followed by a space execute an em dash like in Scrivener Mac?

B.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

B. Justin Shier said:


> Does entering two dashes followed by a space execute an em dash like in Scrivener Mac?


Yes, as I said, it does.


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## maritafowler (Nov 27, 2011)

If you click on compile...is the Convert smart quotes box checked?


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> I can't seem to do it. When I try to copy/paste one in from Word (2010 PC), I either get a blank or a funny character. Don't ebooks support em-dashes? I don't want to use a double en-dash -- for one, that looks amateurish.


Copy from Word or Open Office and then paste in Scrivener.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Yes, I've got convert smart quotes checked.

I've finally figured out how to get an em-dash in Word (what I thought should work doesn't for some reason), and I can copy/paste that into a Scrivener document just fine. Now I need to compile as epub and make sure it translates over.

Scrivener-pc doesn't do a lot of things that Scrivener-Mac does. This saddens me.


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## Lanie Jordan (Feb 23, 2011)

beccaprice said:


> Scrivener-pc doesn't do a lot of things that Scrivener-Mac does. This saddens me.


Scrivener for Mac has been out a lot longer than the PC version. The people who've been working on it have been doing their best to get it current with the Mac version, but like I said, Mac's version has been out for years. Windows was in beta until, I think, about a year and a half ago. We're lucky we've got as many features as we have, all things considered.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Try importing the file instead of copy-pasting it. I find my imports come in cleaner from Word to Scrivener when I save the word file as .rtf first. (I do this and have no problem with em dashes coming over, but I think I have Word 2007.)

(Import is under the file drop down in Scrivener. There is also a handy import and split option, which is great for splitting your scenes. For instance, all my scenes in my Word drafts were marked with #, and Scrivener picked that right up and separated them for me. Scrivener is so cool. I <3 it so much.)


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

Shift + Option + Minus/Dash

On Mac OS X. Sorry I don't remember the Windows shortcut anymore.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

valeriec80 said:


> Try importing the file instead of copy-pasting it. I find my imports come in cleaner from Word to Scrivener when I save the word file as .rtf first.


The file is already in scrivener. My editor wants me to put in some em-dashes instead of ellipses, and I think she's right. I don't want to have to export the file to rtf, edit it there, and then re-import it.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Probably already answered - on Mac, use keyboard shortcut Shift+Alt+DashKey


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## B.T. Narro (May 30, 2013)

ellenoc said:


> I have Scrivener for Windows and -- converts to an em dash. Maybe there's a way to turn this on and off? If so, I don't know it.


double "-" works for me as well with PC Scrivener. You have to type a letter or space after "--" though. Like --a.


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

B.T. Narro said:


> double "-" works for me as well with PC Scrivener. You have to type a letter or space after "--" though. Like --a.


I just checked in Scrivener for Windows and it works for me as well. As BT said, just make sure you type something else after the --. Even a space will give you the em dash.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

ok, it's gotta be something strange with my system then, because that's the way it's supposed to work in Word, but for some reason, it doesn't. I just got a fancy new keyboard, with some oddities to it, but I don't think that could be the reason it doesn't work.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> ok, it's gotta be something strange with my system then, because that's the way it's supposed to work in Word, but for some reason, it doesn't. I just got a fancy new keyboard, with some oddities to it, but I don't think that could be the reason it doesn't work.


Did you turn auto-correct off in Word, perchance? Smashwords tells you to...


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

Yes, if you're trying to do this in Word, look under your autocorrect options. The option to turn double hyphens into an em dash is under autoformat and "autoformat as you type" and it's something you can turn on.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

beccaprice said:


> The file is already in scrivener. My editor wants me to put in some em-dashes instead of ellipses, and I think she's right. I don't want to have to export the file to rtf, edit it there, and then re-import it.


Okay. Sorry. I misunderstood.

Try this: Go to Tools>Options>Corrections. Under substitutions, there's a little box you can check to replace -- with an em dash. Is yours checked?


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

In Windows version: Tools>Options>Corrections. Then Check the box to convert double hypens to em-dashes. After that, when you type double hyphens and then a space, Scrivener converts the double hyphen to an em dash.


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## Nicholas Andrews (Sep 8, 2011)

I just use the double en-dash, because I don't like to utilize any autoformatting. I've turned it off going way back to when I used to copy from Word into my free webhost's HTML editor. The editor couldn't recognize any autoformatted things like smart-quotes, em-dashes or ellipses. Every page would come out as a mess with all the autoformatted characters replaced with little question marks inside of diamonds. Since an e-book is essentially an HTML file, I kill all that noise.

On a related note, why is it 2013 and the em-dash is still not a standard character in a keyboard setup? It's used quite extensively in fiction and elsewhere, yet we have to type in the Contra Code if we want to put it into our document. I don't want to execute a Hadouken on Zangief, I just want my double dash connected.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Rykymus said:


> In Windows version: Tools>Options>Corrections. Then Check the box to convert double hypens to em-dashes. After that, when you type double hyphens and then a space, Scrivener converts the double hyphen to an em dash.


One good thing to keep in mind: some fonts, like the VERY popular Courier New, do not display dashes, en-dashes, and em-dashes with significant differences, so using a high-quality font as your editor font can help.

For example, the following fonts all feature noticeable differences among the three types of dashes:

Times New Roman
Garamond
Bookman (less dramatically so)
Gentium Book Basic
Palatino Linotype

For some reason, serif fonts show bigger differences between dashes than sans-serif fonts do. Such as:

Calibri
Century Gothic
Verdana
Arial (Helvetica, for Mac-heads)


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

it wasn't checked, but is now.

I'll have to double-check to make sure it compiles right; I hope there won't be an issue with it. Right now I'm up to my ears with other issues (not writing related) and I don't have a lot of patience for stupidity.


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## AmsterdamAssassin (Oct 21, 2011)

If nothing works, go to Edit>Special Characters and drag an em-dash into the document.


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