
Tip: Generally, you don't offset en and em dashes with spaces around them. And when there's so many other shortcuts you keep in your head on a daily basis, it might be difficult to do. The only problem is that to use these en and em dash shortcuts effectively, you need to remember them. To type an em dash on keyboard, press Shift + Option + hyphen (-).To type an en dash, press Option + hyphen (-).

On Macs, the long dash symbol situation is much easier. There's no shortcut and the only way to do it on a keyboard is to type the em dash alt code (Alt + 0151) or the en dash alt code (Alt + 0150).
THREE EM DASH FOR MAC HOW TO
If you've used Windows previously and looked into how to type an em dash, you'd agree it's a bit overwhelming. The em dash is primarily used to break the sentence in parts, either for a separate commentary, similar to parentheses, or to provide more context to an idea, similar to a colon.īut how do you en and em dash Mac type? What are en and em dash alt codes? Do you need to alt code long dash on Mac? Let's explore.


When you start researching en dashes and em dashes, you often find this notion that they correspond to the width of n and m letters. So here's a guide to what is a hyphen, an en dash, and em dash, and what are some essential en and em dash shortcuts you should know. The crux of the matter is, every serious writer should know how to type an em dash on the keyboard efficiently.
