How to write en and em dashes?

Question

I understand that to be able to type en and em dashes I have to configure the COMPOSE key, or something like that, but I am not sure about that nor on how I get from there to be able to type en and em dashes in addition to the minus sign.

How do I type en and em dashes on Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 with GNOME 3.18?

I have now looked at this answer, so I would now also like to know the code for the en dash and how to assign other keyboard shortcuts to these Unicode characters, as I don't want to have to type something too long in order to get these.

Possible duplicate of [How can I type a unicode character (for example, em-dash —?)](http://askubuntu.com/questions/31258/how-can-i-type-a-unicode-character-for-example-em-dash) — muru, May 27 '16 at 13:12
The em-dash `—`... [has its own, direct shortcut. `alt`-`-`, at least under Ubuntu-MATE](https://askubuntu.com/questions/31258/how-can-i-type-a-unicode-character-for-example-em-dash/585133#comment2001135_31258) — Frank N, Dec 09 '19 at 14:55

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '16 at 13:16

21

You need to learn the Unicode numbers of these two characters. They are not actually hard to remember, because they look like years. ;)

En dash: U+2013
Em dash: U+2014

To write a Unicode symbol, perform the following actions:

Press Ctrl+Shift+U (the display will show something like u̲)
Type the code (e.g. 2014)
Press Enter

There you go: – —

For a complete reference to Unicode characters, run gucharmap.

answered May 27 '16 at 13:16

Andrea Lazzarotto

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I prefer @cipricus's answer below, using the 'compose' key, because those mnemonically chosen 2 or 3 character sequences are easier to remember than arbitrary four digit hex numbers, especially if one uses the same mechanism for other unicode characters as well. – Jonathan Hartley Sep 01 '23 at 19:54

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:33

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When I look up "em dash" on the gnome 3 overview a result comes up that puts it on the clipboard. I think you need to have gnome-characters installed for it to work.

answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:33

Vicente Reyes

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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 02 '23 at 16:42

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Compose key can be used like this:

Compose and then --. gives – (en-dash).
Compose and then --- gives — (em-dash).

The compose key can be set in the advanced keyboard settings

In LibreOffice Writer one can use :--: and :---:. And in the LO auto-corrector we can set -- to – for example.

edited Sep 02 '23 at 16:42

Jonathan Hartley

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answered Jun 26 '21 at 14:34

cipricus

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How to write en and em dashes?

3 Answers3