How to type em dash and en dash on Mac – Setapp

Mac keyboard symbols: cleverly use hyphens, short dashes and long dashes

Hyphens (-) or dashes in Mac systems are versatile and can be used to connect words, draw arrows (->) and create mathematical formulas (4 - 2 = 0). However, we often use hyphens where longer dashes can be used, mainly because we are not sure how to enter a long dashes. Sometimes people use double dashes (-) or even three dashes (--) to represent short dashes and long dashes respectively (some word processors even support this method), but this does not apply in all cases.

Say goodbye to the problem of long dash

You can choose from a variety of Mac symbol input custom applications, Setapp offers a free trial!

The key to the free trial is that everyone who writes seriously should master the method of efficiently entering long dashes. The following guide will introduce the differences between hyphens, short dashes and long dashes, as well as some essential shortcuts.

When do short dashes and long dashes be used in Mac systems?

When studying short dashes and long dashes, you often see the saying that their widths correspond to the widths of the letters “n” and “m”, respectively. This is an interesting theory, but unfortunately inaccurate. More precisely, the width of the long dash is closer to the width of the capital letter "H", and the short dash is about half its width.

As for the name, "en" and "em" are traditional printing terms, where "em" represents the vertical dimension of the lead type and "en" is half of it. In digital fonts, the long dash for the 12-pound font is 12 pounds, although most digital fonts are now shorter than that.

Short dash has two main uses:

1. Connect numerical ranges (e.g., 1945–47, May–September, and before World War II – although the last usage is less common)
2. Connecting values ​​that are juxtaposed (for example, California-Oregon protocol)

Long dashes are mainly used to divide sentences into sections and can be used as supplementary instructions (similar to brackets), or provide more context (similar to colons).

So, how do you enter short dash and long dash on your Mac? What are the shortcut keys? Do I need to use a long dash Alt code? Let's discuss it.

How to use dash shortcut keys

If you have used Windows before and know how to enter a long dash on your Windows system, you'll agree that it's a bit confusing. There are no shortcut keys for Windows, the only way is to enter the Alt code for the long dash (Alt 0151) or the Alt code for the short dash (Alt 0150).

On Mac systems, it is much easier to have a dash symbol.

• Enter a short dash and press the Option hyphen (-)
• Enter a long dash and press Shift Option hyphen (-)

The only problem is that to use these short dash and long dash shortcuts effectively, you need to remember them. This can be hard to do when you need to remember many other shortcuts every day.

Tip: Usually, you don't need to add spaces around short dashes and long dashes. However, if the text looks too compact, inserting a space on both sides can make it look better and easier to read.

How to call out the character viewer panel

In fact, you don't just have to deal with the two special characters of short dashes and long dashes—and there are hundreds of characters you may need to use occasionally, from currency symbols to emojis.

To access all these characters, your Mac system has a special menu called "Character Viewer" that contains all the special symbols you may need.

There are two ways to access the character viewer:

1. Go to System Preferences ➙Keyboard ➙Input Source ➙Select "Show input menu in the menu bar". Then click the language icon in the menu bar and select Show emojis and symbols.
2. Use the shortcut key Control ⌘ Space, which can be used anywhere on your Mac system or in any online and offline documents.

Once the Character Viewer is turned on, you can browse the symbols you want or use the search function. Enter "Long Dash" and all relevant results will be displayed. To insert any symbol into any document (for example, in Google Docs or Microsoft Word), just double-click it.

Overall, the character viewer is very useful and will meet your needs most of the time. However, not all icons exist, which can sometimes make you feel limited. Also, sometimes you may not know the name of a certain symbol. So how do you find it?

Glyphfinder absorbs all the benefits of the character viewer and magnifies it 10x. This small app has over 34,000 characters that you can access in a semantic way – so just visually describe the icon to find it in your search. Double-clicking the symbol will copy it to the clipboard so you can paste it anywhere. Additionally, Glyphfinder is equally easy to access – it is located in your menu bar, but can be called up at any time by pressing Control ⌘ G.

How to automatically replace short dash and long dash on Mac system

The third way to enter a long dash is to automatically replace the predetermined sequence of characters with a long dash – basically creating your own shortcut keys!

We mentioned above that some applications automatically replace double hyphen (--) with long dash (-). But this does not apply in all cases. You may also like to use this specific key combination. So a better solution is to create your own shortcut keys.

There are limited ways to create shortcut keys on Mac systems:

1. Open System Preferences
2. Go to "Keyboard" ➙ "Text"
3. Click the plus icon
4. In the Replace column, enter the text you want to convert to a short dash or a long dash (for example, "emd"). In the "Use" column, copy and paste the long dash from Glyphfinder.

That's it. Now, every time you enter emd, it will automatically convert to a long dash. And it works on your iCloud device! Repeat this process for short dash. The only limiting factor here is the flexibility and length of the message. So if you like this shortcut technology, upgrading to a software like Rocket Typist might be better.

Rocket Typist is a more advanced text extender. This application ensures that you do not have to enter the same message twice. You can create templates of any level of complexity (consider changing names, dates, or other variables) and call them in any application using simple phrases.

Here is how to create simple long dash shortcuts using Rocket Typist:

1. Start Rocket Typist
2. Click Create New Fragment in the top bar
3. Name your fragment and enter the message you want to display in the field (for example, —)
4. Click Comment Settings and enter the abbreviation you want to use to call the message

Now, whenever you need to display a message, just start typing its abbreviation. However, Rocket Typist is not the only application you can use to generate various shortcut keys. You can also try BetterTouchTool.

BetterTouchTool gives you complete control over all input devices on your Mac system, whether it's a keyboard, Touch Bar, mouse, trackpad, or even your iPhone. You can record specific sequences to produce specific results. You can override the default behavior of the input device. The possibilities are endless!

For example, to enter a long dash on your Mac using BetterTouchTool:

1. Start the application
2. Create a key sequence (e.g., emd)
3. Assign a specific action (for example, sending keyboard shortcuts ➙Control Option hyphen)
4. Add any other action ➙Done!

Please read also:

• How to enter an index on your Mac
• How to enter accent marks on your Mac
• 1. The rig on the Mac system
• How to add a remover on your Mac

Another powerful shortcut key creation application that is essential for more complex sequences is Keysmith.

Keysmith is not just for simple shortcuts – it is a fully functional platform for creating macros of any difficulty. The app allows you to record your actions across multiple applications, including menu options you choose, click location, input content, and more. You can then simply set a hotkey to repeat the sequence at any time. For example, you can run a macro using Keysmith that opens all the applications and websites you need when you start working. ;

As you can see, there are many ways to enter long dashes on your Mac system. You can use the default system shortcut keys, paste symbols from the character viewer, and automatically replace some symbols with others in System Preferences. But even better, you can use Glyphfinder to find any desired symbol, you can create fragments with Rocket Typist, you can reassign any keyboard shortcuts with BetterTouchTool, or you can create sequences of any level of complexity with Keysmith.

On top of that, Glyphfinder, Rocket Typist, BetterTouchTool, and Keysmith are all available for free for seven days with the Setapp trial, a platform with over 200 excellent Mac applications that can be used to handle any task. Try each Setapp application for free and marvel at how to extend your Mac system default settings.

The above is the detailed content of How to type em dash and en dash on Mac – Setapp. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!