Hyphens, en dashes and em dashes
I was browsing about the Nice Dashes plugin for WordPress, which replaces double-hyphens (–) with the correct character code for an em-dash (—), and also converts single-hyphens to a character code. There I came to know that WordPress by default converts Triple-hyphens to em-dashes (—), and double-dashes to en-dashes (–).
I also stumbled upon another site called http://stellify.net/, wherein I learnt about the perils of the “auto-hyphenation” feature of Word-processors, whenever a word is broken into different lines. This kind of adding a hyphen breaks hyper links of URL’s.
How wise had I become after reading all these? Pity. I discovered how ignorant I am on this esoteric domain of dashes!! So, I prayed before the altar of the net-gods, to wit, the ever-dependable friends-in-need, Google and Wikipedia. They never let you down, do they!
So, when I started delving deeper into the realms of dashes and things, I got wised up on the nuances of using hyphens and dashes. Instead of me summing up, why don’t you do a bit of leg-work and comb through them yourself!!
Here are the resources:-
“Get it wright” page on en dashes and em dashes.
Happy dashing!!