Learn how you can insert an em dash in PowerPoint for the Web. Find easier ways to add the em dash, and make your content better.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint for the Web
OS: Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X
You may want to quickly add an em dash within your text container—be it a placeholder, text box, shape, or even a table. It's very easy to add an em dash in PowerPoint for Windows or even the Mac, but what if you are using the browser-based PowerPoint for the Web? Yes, you can add an em dash in PowerPoint for the Web, and again there is more than one way to achieve this task.
An Em Dash is a dash that's roughly as wide as the capital letter M. Characters can be wider or less wide, depending on the font used. The M in Arial is wider than the M in Calibri, as you can see in Figure 1, below. Depending upon the font used, the width of your em dash can differ.
Figure 1: Width of the em dash depends upon the font used
One aspect though will always be constant—the em dash will be longer than the en dash, which is similarly roughly based on the width of the capital letter N, as can be seen in Figure 1, above. Also, the en dash is wider than the figure dash, the hyphen, and the minus sign.
We will look at three ways to add an em dash in PowerPoint on the Web.
To add an em dash using an Alt key combination, follow these steps:
If you are using a Mac, this process of using the Alt key will not work for non-Windows users. You can use the other two options explained on this page.
To access the em dash character from the Symbol dialog box, follow these steps:
The third option is to copy and paste, and this option probably is the easiest way since you are already working within a web browser. It's easy to copy something from another tab in the browser and paste into your slide, also within a browser.
Now, follow these steps to copy symbols into PowerPoint for the Web:
See Also:
Symbols: Add an Em Dash (Glossary Page)
Add an Em Dash in PowerPoint for Mac
Add an Em Dash in PowerPoint for Windows
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