No-Width Optional Break

Ron Davis

unread,

Mar 11, 2003, 4:07:29 PM3/11/03

to

In Word 2000, in the menu

Insert > Symbol > Special Characters

there is an option called "No-Width Optional Break". If
it does what the name says, it could be very useful.
However, all I can make it do is create an ugly mark in
the text. What is its purpose?

Suzanne S. Barnhill

unread,

Mar 11, 2003, 9:09:50 PM3/11/03

to

The ugly mark does not print. What the "No-Width Optional Break" does is
provide a place for Word to break lines (without a hyphen) rather than wrap
a long URL or othe text to the next line. If you've ever used WordPerfect,
this is the equivalent of the Hyphenation Soft Return.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

"Ron Davis" <dav...@aecl.ca> wrote in message
news:10b801c2e812$39f33250$3101...@phx.gbl...

Ron Davis

unread,

Mar 12, 2003, 8:24:25 AM3/12/03

to

Thank you for the reply. However, I just tried it again.
The line does not break, even though the previous line has
lots of space at the end (left-aligned) or among the words
(justified). The mark is printed.

I am using Microsoft Word 2000 (9.0.6926 SP-3). I also
tried setting the language to Farsi, and found no
difference.

I well remember Hyphenation Soft Return in WordPerfect,
and miss it deeply.

>.
>

Suzanne S. Barnhill

unread,

Mar 12, 2003, 9:57:59 AM3/12/03

to

The break does work in Word 2002. ISTR some complaint that it did not work
as advertised in Word 2000 (except in Asian languages). But see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/NoWidthSpace.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

"Ron Davis" <dav...@aecl.ca> wrote in message

news:028801c2e89a$b3a29720$3001...@phx.gbl...

Klaus Linke

unread,

Mar 15, 2003, 3:44:15 PM3/15/03

to

Hi Ron,

Unfortunately, you can't insert the "zero width space" (U+200B) from the
"Insert > Symbol > Special characters" dialog.
If you have inserted it, it looks like a brown double-bordered box if you
display the formatting characters.

What you can insert from there are the "zero width joiner" (U+200D) and
"zero width non-joiner" (U+200C), which don't have any meaning at all in
western text. As far as I know, they are in languages that use ligatures
(like Arabic) to force or prevent ligatures between characters.

MS may have other names for those characters; they sometimes choose their
own, misleading names for Unicode characters.

The article Suzanne mentioned has some methods to insert that character,
and to make a keyboard shortcut for it.
I myself use AutoCorrect very extensively. After you have inserted the
character some way (say with "Selection.InsertAfter ChrW(&H200B)" from a
macro), you can select it and create an unformatted AutoCorrect entry for
it ("Tools > AutoCorrect"; I used #zws# in "Replace:").

I only use it rarely, and only if necessary (and don't insert it after each
slash or backslash).

Greetings,
Klaus

Suzanne S. Barnhill

unread,

Mar 15, 2003, 5:56:31 PM3/15/03

to

For the frequency with which I use it, 200B, Alt+X works just fine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

"Klaus Linke" <fotosatz...@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:OulooOz6...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Ron Davis

unread,

Mar 17, 2003, 1:22:55 PM3/17/03

to

Thank you Suzanne for the link to that Web page. The
macro works fine, and I can use it conveniently, because I
was already using a macro that inserts a 1-point n space.
All I have to do is change the guts of my macro and use
the same menu entry.

The other methods don't work on my installation. Mostly,
they give me a Mars or male sign. However, the macro is
all I need.

>.
>