MS Word 2003 — How to Add Nonbreaking Space and Nonbreaking Hyphen

© 2010 Ugur Akinci

Does your MS Word text break off and continue on the next line at the wrong spot? If you’d like to keep two words that appear at the end of the first and the beginning of the second line together, insert a nonbreaking space or hyphen.

Here is our sample text:

How to Insert Nonbreaking Space

We’ll insert a nonbreaking space in between the words “non” and “breaking” so that they will appear on the same line.

1) Display your paragraph marks by pressing the Show/Hide Paragraph Mark button on your toolbar.

If you haven’t already done so: Select Tools > Options from the menu and then select the View tab. The select the All check-box in the Formatting Marks group to display all the paragraph marks:

2) Select the DOT character following the last word on the first line. (Dots are the symbols for spaces in Word.)

3) Press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar to insert a nonbreaking space which will look like a Degree Symbol (which won’t print):

4) Or, alternatively, select Insert > Symbol form the menu and then select the Special Characters tab.

5) Select the Nonbreaking Space row and click the Insert button.

How to Insert Nonbreaking Hyphen

1) Repeat the steps 1 and 2 above.

2) Press Ctrl+_ (the underscore symbol which requires you to first press the Shift key) to insert a nonbreaking hyphen (which will print):

3) Or, alternatively, select Insert > Symbol form the menu and then select the Special Characters tab.

4) Select the Nonbreaking Hyphen row and click the Insert button.