Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
More importantly they mean different things. A hyphen is used to break a word at the end of a line or to combine two words. It can also be used as a minus sign in numbers. An endash is normally used to specify a range of values in numbers. An emdash is usually used to set apart a thought or line of reasoning in a book where it will be used in pairs. It may also be used to represent a trailing off of a sentence or when a sentence is interrupted by another person. It is the different uses that make in important to use the correct symbol for the correct meaning. Often Gutenberg eBooks get this wrong as pure ASCII doesn't have an emdash.
Dale
BTW - Patricia, I know you know this but perhaps the original question was more about why than just what the character looked like.
DD
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If you are talking about my comment .... a little of both. I've never heard of the character before coming here. I might have used it in writing ... but never thought of it as any thing more than a dash.
So now I know .....
