Computer clinic
PAGE PERFECT
Text formatting and epub layout made easy, by Greta Powell
From auto-hyphenation through to embedded fonts, this month we return to the cosmetics of text and page layouts. What is an optional hyphen and why does it keep randomly appearing in a document in Microsoft Word, and why are fonts so often embedded in Microsoft Publisher? And then, how best to approach the issue of publishing a cover page in Adobe InDesign for an epub export.
Q: For some reason Word 2016 keeps inserting a hyphen into my writing at the end of some of my sentences which to my eye looks ugly and I would like to remove it. I have no idea what it is or why this happening and would appreciate it if you could explain what is happening and what can be done about it.
A: This is auto hyphenation and at some point the ‘automatic’ option must have been switched on from Word’s layout tab. It is an optional hyphen that Word uses when words break at the end of the line and it is easy to remove. Make sure that all your text is selected then go to the Layout tab >Page Setup and click the downward arrow next to Hyphenation then choose None from the drop down list. Now you should be able to work without optional hyphens popping up in the document.