Non-Breaking Spaces

Non-Breaking Space

This is the first in our occasional series of Mouse Tips. These are the little things in life that make all the difference. Today the topic is non-breaking spaces. Hold your breath!

Text in browsers, documents and emails usually wraps onto the next line at the first available space or hyphen. Which is fine by me. Most of the time, but not always. What do I do if I have text where I need to keep the words together? Like addresses or proper names. Here’s my address: 27 High St, EC1.

I want all of those words to stay together. I don’t want the text to break onto a new line after the “27”. And then have the “High St, EC1” on the next line. Text will always wrap at the first space. Personal names are another bugbear. The name, “Mrs Edna Bloggs” should all read as consecutive words, otherwise it looks silly. You can’t have “Mrs” at the end of one line, and then “Edna Bloggs” at the start of the next line. Numbers and units are another example where the text needs to stay together. 24 mpg should always read as “24 mpg” otherwise it has no meaning.

You often end up re-typing the text so that it reads properly. No, this is where you need a non breaking space.

A normal space is the spacebar. The non breaking space is CTRL+SHIFT+Spacebar. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT together and then press the spacebar. It’s a bit of a pain BUT that text stays together. You’ll have to do this for every space in an address.

If you’re on a Mac, try OPTION+Spacebar.

If you want to see other typographical tricks, come along on our Word Introduction Course.

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