Wikipedia:How to make dashes

The hyphen-minus (keyboard hyphen), en dash, em dash, and mathematical minus/negative symbols are different (see WP:Manual of Style/Dashes). Below is information on how to generate these characters.

Using the CharInsert toolbar

To insert a hyphen-minus, just press the - on your keyboard, usually next to the 0 (zero) key. To insert a dash or minus sign, do this... As you edit a page, below the edit box is a toolbar with a pull-down menu, followed by a horizontal list of characters.

• To insert an endash, select "Insert" in the pulldown menu, then click on the first character (the shorter-looking dash).
• To insert an emdash, select "Insert" in the pulldown menu, then click on the second character (the longer-looking dash).
• To insert a minus sign, select "Math and Logic" in the pulldown menu, and click on the first character.

Using templates or HTML character entities

For an en dash, type – or {{en dash}} in the edit box.

For an em dash, type — or {{em dash}}.

For a spaced en dash with a non-breaking space before the dash and a regular space after it, type {{spaced ndash}} or {{snd}}.

For a minus sign, type −.

Using copy and paste

One can simply copy an en dash (–) or em dash (—) already in some text and paste it where a new one is wanted.

By keyboard

To make a dash using the Unicode numbers 2013 (en dash) or 2014 (em dash), see the Hexadecimal code input section of the Unicode input article.

• For Mac: ⌥ Opt+- (en dash, '–') or ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+- (em dash, '—'), and ignore the rest of the page.
• For Linux:
  • Use AltGr- (en dash), or AltGr⇧ Shift- (em dash), and ignore the rest of the page.
  • If you have Compose key: Compose--. (en dash) or Compose--- (em dash), and ignore the rest of the page.
• For Windows:
  • Alt+0150 (en dash) or Alt+0151 (em dash), using the number pad and ignore the rest of the page.
  • If the number pad is not installed, use ⊞ Win+R to open the Run box. Enter charmap to call up the Character Map. Scroll down three times, click on the en or em dash, then on "Select", then on "Copy", and paste the dash into your document. The Character Map icon will appear on the taskbar; if the service will be needed often, right-click the icon and select "Pin to taskbar".

• For iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android:
  • Hold the - on-screen keyboard until a pop up appears with choices including the en dash and em dash. If using an external keyboard with iOS, use the Mac advice above; ignore the rest of the page.
• Alternatively, regardless of platform:
  • Copy and paste an en dash (–) or an em dash (—) as described above.
  • If you're using the Visual Editor or the 2017 source editor, use the special characters menu in the toolbar.

More methods

Method	Details
Hex input Alt++2013	While holding down the left Alt key (the right Alt key does not work if the US-International keyboard is enabled), type +2013 on the numeric keypad; make sure the "Num Lock" light is on. Here you do type the second plus sign. This approach, along with techniques to use if the keypad is unavailable and one prefers not to edit the Windows registry, are described here.
abcTajpu[1]	A straightforward add-on for the Firefox browser.
Customise your keyboard with AutoHotkey	Make a script (probably in Notepad) to assign actions to any number of key combinations of your choice; load the script automatically whenever you start Windows or load scripts and unload them ad hoc.
KbdEdit[2]	Modify an existing keyboard or create a new keyboard.

See also

• Dash#Rendering dashes on computers