Originally Posted by
Zherog
In Word you can create an em-dash by holding down ctrl and alt and pressing the minus key on your number pad. Similarly, you can produce an en-dash by holding just ctrl and pressing the minus key on your number pad.
In RPG publishing, there's three different dashes.
Hyphen: (-) This guy is the one we're mostly used to, and sits to the right of the zero key. This is used as the dash between compound words, like up in my first paragraph.
Em-Dash: (—) This one has been pretty well described in this thread. Note that some publishers (again, in the RPG world only - don't know about others) do not want spaces on either side of the em-dash. others specifically do. For example, from kindablue's post:
His first thought on getting out of bed — if he had any thought at all — was to get back in again.
Some publishers want those spaces. Others:
His first thought on getting out of bed—if he had any thought at all—was to get back in again.
Take 'em right out!
En-Dash: (–) This little guy is ever so slightly bigger than a hyphen. RPG publishers like it in place of a minus sign, as well as a separator on lists. For example:
1d20–5
or
1–20%: blah blah blah