Creating a dash in Word

As I work on edit after edit and tutor students in the art of writing, there seems to be a misunderstanding about the proper way to make a dash in Word. There isn't a "dash" button on the QWERTY keyboard and no seemingly simple way to do it. I either see single hyphens (-) used as dashes or I see double hyphens (--).

click to enlarge

How to properly type a dash into Word:

- Type the word you want before the dash

-WITHOUT SPACING, type a double hyphen (--)

-WITHOUT SPACING AGAIN, type the word you want after the dash

-Finally, hit the space button

This post is NOT about how to properly use a dash. Perhaps I'll do that one later. (One tip is not to use it where you would use a semicolon.)

Note that this "how to" is for Word. It could also work in other word processors but it certainly doesn't work in this IE browser I'm using. Not sure if it would work in any others.

Hope I've been some help!

Peace, love, and happy writing,

Pamela