Soft hyphen

[Kumabjorn]

Yes or no?
Writing in Word I will, as a matter of reflex, insert a soft hyphen (Ctrl+hyphen) if I have a long word at the right edge.

Will this be automatically disregarded by en e-book conversion process? (I hope so). I realize that it won't be problem if I don't insert them but it is infuriatingly ingrained in me, and should I need to print out a manuscript at least it will look acceptable, whereas a line 2/3 its surrounding lines seems like an eyesore to me.

[JSWolf]

Don't use a soft-hyphen. Some Readers will display them (when they should not be displayed) and some won't work properly with them and some will have a broken search.

[HarryT]

Definitely no, for the reasons Jon mentions.

[Kumabjorn]

Guess I'll have to do a global search and replace. Thanks :thumbup:

[little and large]

Good advice. Who knew? Well, we all do now.

[teh603]

Most of the books on word processing that I've seen, have all suggested against using hyphenation of any kind, especially in a non-WYSIWYG environment like an early word processor or an ePUB. They also suggest against using Full Justification, which is one of the reasons people end up needing hyphenation in the first place.

You just can't tell where the hyphen is going to end up if you can't tell where the line is going to break.

[HarryT]

As a matter of interest, I'm currently reading a book on my Kindle PW2 which shows the perils of soft hyphenation. All the hyphens which were obviously originally inserted as soft hyphens are showing up as inappropriate normal hyphens in the text.

[Kumabjorn]

That is exactly what I want to avoid, but it also looks ugly, at least to my eyes, when you have a 27 letter long word and the last letter pushes it to the next line.

[HarryT]

Fortunately, 27-letter words are rare in English. I can imagine it being a far greater problem in languages like German, which build up long compound nouns. Does Swedish also do this?

[Kumabjorn]

Yes, many compound nouns, sometimes three nouns combined into one. Makes for plenty of letters.

[VydorScope]

Thankful I have never used a 27 long letter word in any of my text. That must look horrid on a cellphone screen!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As a matter of interest, I'm currently reading a book on my Kindle PW2 which shows the perils of soft hyphenation. All the hyphens which were obviously originally inserted as soft hyphens are showing up as inappropriate normal hyphens in the text.

Doesn't the Calibre Plugin insert soft hyphens on every possible place in a word?

It never posed a problem on my Kindle PW1, and hyphens are displayed exactly where they should: only if a long word is broken up at the end of a line. (Of course, I can unhyphenate the books at any moment by having Hyphenate This remove all of them.)

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Thankful I have never used a 27 long letter word in any of my text. That must look horrid on a cellphone screen!

It's normal practice in Dutch and German to have words like that.

For example:

Fire truck driver -> Brandweerwagenchauffeur
Police force commander -> Politiekorpscommandant

Consider this one:

Second hand book store employee -> Tweedehandsboekenwinkelmedewerker

Often, such a world will be avoided and rephrased as "medewerker in een winkel voor tweedehands boeken." (Employee working in a second hand book store.)

Splitting up the long word actually changes the meaning:

Tweedehandsboekenwinkelmedewerker = employee in a second hand book store
Tweedehands boekenwinkelmedewerker = the employee is working in a book store, and he is second hand himself.
Tweedehands boekenwinkel medewerker = the employee is working in a book store, and the book store itself is second hand.
Tweedehandsboekenwinkel medewerker = wrong spelling.

Sometimes, hyphenation can be very handy to have

[JSWolf]

Soft hyphens seem to work on Kindles. But on other readers, sorry, big honking FAIL.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Soft hyphens seem to work on Kindles. But on other readers, sorry, big honking FAIL.

That could very well be the case. It's one of the reasons why I use a Kindle despite the very limited customization options: everything regarding the reading itself works perfectly, either on it's own, or when using calibre plugins (for the custom page numbers and hyphenation).

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Fortunately, 27-letter words are rare in English. I can imagine it being a far greater problem in languages like German, which build up long compound nouns. Does Swedish also do this?

I read that Germans are increasingly using hyphens to separate very long words. It's called the English disease.