This hyphen is invisible, unless the word gets split at the end of a line.īut as a rule of thumb, see if the word is still easy to understand if you say it out loud with a pause where you are going to break the word. In Microsoft Word, this is done by using Ctrl+. It is also possible, however, to put markers in words where the word processor will be allowed to split the word. Unfortunately, most word processors are not very good at automatically splitting words, so it is best to keep that feature off. It is also easy with words with prefixes such as “quasi” or “psuedo” e.g.īut mostly, splitting the words just makes them hard to read – and can lead to nightmares when the content of text is changed, because words that were once at the end of a line will no longer be at the end of a line, and everything will have to be re-done.
If it must be done, try to keep the components of meaning together – this is easy with obviously compound words, such as keyboard. There are really no proper rules as to how it should be done, when it is, so basically, use common sense. However, I will give what I consider to be ok guidelines: If possible, add another word to the line, or take one away, so you don’t need to split in the first place. Firstly, it is preferable not to split a word at the end of a line.ĭo not hyphenate (split) words at the end of a line.