MS Word — How to Add Nonbreaking Space and Nonbreaking Hyphen

By 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:
MS Word 2003 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens 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.
MS Word show-hide paragraph marks button
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:

MS Word 2003 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens FORMATTING 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):

MS Word 2003 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens DEGREE SYMBOL

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

MS Word 2003 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens SPECIAL CHARACTERS TAB

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

How to Insert Nonbreaking MS Word 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):
MS Word 2003 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens HYPHEN SYMBOL
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.

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About Ugur Akinci