No more waiting for lines: New Windows keyboard shortcuts output em and en dashes with ease
- Reference: 1757158095
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/06/windows_keyboard_shortcuts_dashes/
- Source link:
The latest Windows Insider builds in the Dev and Beta channels include a new feature that allows you to type either kind of dash with simple keyboard shortcuts that even work if you don’t have a number pad. Once users activate the feature, they can hit:
Windows key + dash key (-) for en dash
Windows key + Shift + dash key (-) for em dash
While it seems likely that Microsoft will soon add these keyboard shortcuts to production versions of Windows 11, right now, you need to be running an Insider build in the Dev channel (build 26200.5761 or higher) or the Beta channel (26120.5770 or higher). You also need to activate the shortcuts using the ViveTool.
ViveTool is a free utility that activates hidden features of Windows that Microsoft hasn’t turned on yet for everyone (perhaps they are A/B testing with some users getting it turned on).
To enable the shortcuts to create em and en dashes, first make sure you are running the latest Beta or Dev channel build. You can see your build number by running the winver command and you can join the Insider program, if you’re not in it already, by navigating to Settings->Windows Update->Windows Insider Program, clicking Get Started, and choosing the Beta or Dev channel. Be warned that Insider builds can have bugs and stability issues that the release build of Windows does not.
[1]
Windows Insider Program - Click to enlarge
Then download the [2]latest version of ViveTool . Unzip it to an easily-accessible folder on your C drive. I put mine in C:\vive.
Open a Windows elevated command prompt. You can do this by typing “cmd” into the Windows search bar, which produces a shortcut to the Windows command prompt and an option to Run as Administrator. Click on that option.
[3]
Open an elevated command prompt - Click to enlarge
Next, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the ViveTool. If you used the same path as me, it's C:\vive. cd C:\vive
Type the following text, which will activate the dash creation shortcuts. vivetool /enable /id:58422150
Once this is done, reboot your PC and you're good to go. Credit goes to Windows Insider expert [4]phantomofearth for finding the right ID number and sharing it on X.
[5]Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need
[6]Make Redmond angry by setting up Windows 11 with a local account
[7]Windows 11 is a minefield of micro-aggressions in the shipping lane of progress
[8]If you're forced to use Windows 11, here's how to steal some of your time back
Other ways to get en dash and em dash
If you don’t have a Windows Insider build, there are other ways to use em dash and en dash in Windows today. If you have a keyboard with a number pad, hitting ALT + a number combo works pretty well. This does not work with the number keys that sit above the QWERTY row, however.
ALT + 0150 for en dash
ALT + 0151 for em dash
If you don't have a numeric keypad or a photographic memory to recall these codes, [9]install Microsoft PowerToys and enable Quick Accent under Input / Output.
[10]
Enable Quick Accent in PowerToys - Click to enlarge
Then, when you’re typing, hold down the dash key and hit the spacebar at the same time. A bar with several different symbols will appear on-screen and you can hit the spacebar a few more times to select the en or em dash.
[11]
Quick Accent feature in action - Click to enlarge
This second method is a bit slow and tedious. It shows why having the new keyboard shortcuts would be quite a boon for writers. Just don’t use those extra-long dashes when a comma will do. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/09/04/emdash1.jpg
[2] https://github.com/thebookisclosed/ViVe/releases
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/09/04/emdash2.jpg
[4] https://x.com/phantomofearth/status/1961884853231591929
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/16/microsoft_windows_features_help_productivity/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/set_up_windows11_local_account/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/windows_11_is_a_minefield/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/windows_11_productivity_sink/
[9] https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/xp89dcgq3k6vld
[10] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/09/04/emdash3.jpg
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/09/04/emdash4.png
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sometimes you need punctuation. There's a difference between extra-marital sex and extra marital sex.
That's just a hyphen though, a key for which is provided.
Call me cynical but I find it telling that MS suddenly gives a **** about this as it becomes a well known obvious indicator of AI in casual texts.
———————————
—Let's not—the hopes—
———————————
Seems like a lot of effort to disguise LLM output.
User: "Please don't use em-dash ("—") in your output. Use minus ("-") instead. This is non-negotiable. Your output is invalid if you use —."
LLM: "Understood, I will not use—in my output."
User: "But you just did use it!"
LLM: "No, I used—(minus) as you asked me to."
Great news
Now, to fully use the OS you paid for, you have to download yet another bolt-on tool.
What a mess.
Re: Great news
"Now, to fully use the OS you paid for, you have to download yet another bolt-on tool."
"...The latest Windows Insider builds in the Dev and Beta channels..."
It's in beta testing phase! The utility unlikely needed if/when released for the masses.
If you want special characters not found on your keyboard, the Character Map has been there since Windows 3.1 (if not earlier?), and the Alt codes came to exist when IBM PC came out...
Re: Great news
Windows, since W7, is a permanent beta release with some alpha mixed in for the lulz (8, 12).
How about...
Making it easier to get rid of all that so-called 'A.I.' crap in your OS before worrying about something as stupid as dashes ?
Adequate...
I always thought that plain ASCII - and -- was perfectly fine for such punctuation. Watch my phone or the forum code fuck up what I typed because that's my luck.
Dashes
Office has been autocorrecting to these for decades.
Meanwhile, on Linux...
The article made me curious as to how the same thing might be accomplished on Linux. I assumed (and immediately tried) Compose Key - -, and got nothing.
Turns out that [1]Compose Key - - - will get you an em dash, Compose Key - - . an en dash. (Not the accepted answer, but preferable to the accepted one in my opinion.)
I expect that -- on the rare occasions that I use such things -- I'll continue to write them as I just did, with two minus signs. But I could imagine it being nice to have the option for "real" dashes.
[1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/778243/how-to-write-en-and-em-dashes
So there are a total of about four ways to do these dashes:
1. In outlook or word it seemingly does one for you if you type aa double dash followed by a space
2. One of the methods above, after you run this tool
3. ALT-codes
4. use powertoys
Typical Microsoft.... let things evolve ungracefully over the decades and include at least 3 different ways of doing anything. That'll keep the users on their toes. No wonder people who start using Linux or MacOS usually (OK, not always) end up preferring it.
In MacOS it's option + - for an en-dash and shift + option + - for an em-dash, and has been for decades.
I love that three underscores in Outlook creates a
tag! Brilliant!
?????
"Writers rely on the humble em dash (—) and en dash (–) to add flavor and function to their sentences."
What the fuck are you talking about?
Re: ?????
What, you don't like a nice chewy tasty sentence?
Re: ?????
Grammar and style guides have been deprecated.
Your post uses em dashes and thus was clearly written by AI. Em dashes are a tool of satan! As is all punctuation and grammar and spelling. Don't let it happen again!