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Originally Posted by Michael J Hunt
Hi Dream Writer. So it isn't just me - I'm relieved to hear it.
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No, it isn't only you. Those formatting irregularities bother me too. Amazon shouldn't have used that example in their advert, and it's amazing that they didn't scrutinize it more carefully before publishing.
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One thing you mentioned that I'd like to pick up on, is where you state 'Some people probably don't know how to create the em-dash'. You can count me in on that - I assume you're referring to MicroSoft Word.
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It's super-easy to create an em-dash in MS Word. There's a feature called AutoCorrect. I use MS Word 2007, so these instructions apply to that version. To check how your AutoCorrect is set up, click on the circle-thingy in the upper-left corner in Word (called "Office Button"). Click on "Word Options," then "Proofing," "AutoCorrect Options," and "AutoFormat." If you check the box that says "hyphens (--) with dash (—)," then every time you type a word followed by two hyphens in a row and another word, the two hyphens turn into an em-dash automatically.
When I'm working with HTML to create an e-book, I insert this code in the HTML wherever the em-dash appears:
I'm not sure that's always necessary, but I also make similar HTML changes for curly quotes, apostrophes, etc.