True fact: because on my laptop I can't use ALT+0151 to conjure an em dash, when I'm editing the quickest way to acquire one is to Google "em dash". As a result, Google thinks em dashes are a special interest of mine and the article suggestions on my android phone are all about the world of dashes. - ThreadSky

gtiso.bsky.social • 47 days ago

True fact: because on my laptop I can't use ALT+0151 to conjure an em dash, when I'm editing the quickest way to acquire one is to Google "em dash". As a result, Google thinks em dashes are a special interest of mine and the article suggestions on my android phone are all about the world of dashes.

Comments

capacle.bsky.social•46 days ago

I pinned an em dash to my clipboard history for the very same reason. Recommended!

crankypacifist.bsky.social•46 days ago

I set a hotkey

capacle.bsky.social•46 days ago

Smart move

mrfarty.bsky.social•46 days ago

TIL you can pin things to your clipboard history — tyvm!

capacle.bsky.social•46 days ago

It’s a life saver! Glad to help

katiegeeks.bsky.social•46 days ago

My em dash habit is, legitimately, a major factor in why my personal laptops always have number pads.

gtiso.bsky.social•46 days ago

Macrons on vowels, too.

fullmetal.bzky.team•46 days ago

Trying to type é without good ol' Alt+0233 is A CHORE, who even decided these non NumPad methods anyway😤

gtiso.bsky.social•46 days ago

Admittedly é is on my keyboard all the time

katiegeeks.bsky.social•46 days ago

That person who tweeted years ago about keeping a bookmark to Beyoncé Wikipedia entry for é copy-paste purposes is so valid.

itsdvw.bsky.social•46 days ago

One of the things I miss most about Macs is being able to option-shift-hyphen an em dash (and other option key symbol shortcuts)

k8johnsonauthor.bsky.social•46 days ago

I once had a copy editor replace all my em dashes with some mysterious identical em dash (imagine the fun in Track Changes!). For my next book, I copy/pasted their special em dash.

They replaced that, too.

betterkevin.bsky.social•46 days ago

I bought my wife a custom Tervis Tumblr that is just an em dash. She loves it.

namnezia.bsky.social•46 days ago

Usually two dashes in succession get automatically converted into an em dash—like this.

gtiso.bsky.social•46 days ago

I disable autocorrect instantly in all my word processing software.

theotherspeakman.bsky.social•46 days ago

Em Dash, Dash Parr, DoorDash...

crankypacifist.bsky.social•46 days ago

Dash is actually his middle name. His formal signature is M. Dash Parr.

rakshasa.bsky.social•46 days ago

Dash Rendar, from that Star Wars game on the N64?

dudlawson.com•47 days ago

This has happened to me with “degree sign”

jazzy-rascal.bsky.social•46 days ago

I memorized the Alt code for the degree sign and then later found out that I was actually using the "masculine ordinal indicator" and when I thought I was saying "90 degrees" I was actually communicating "90th."

dudlawson.com•46 days ago

Hey that’s a lot of words I don’t understand, but I appreciate your response.

starlightpl.bsky.social•46 days ago

you better don't visit https://raquo.net/raquo/ then ;-)))

druidgmdesigns.bsky.social•46 days ago

I was so bothered by the lack of numpad on my previous small laptop that I specifically bought one with so I could easily add special characters like em dashes again.

vavouyios.bsky.social•47 days ago

Alt + 8212

gtiso.bsky.social•46 days ago

I actually meant ALT + 0151

vavouyios.bsky.social•46 days ago

I know, my laptop won’t do em dash either with ALT 0151 so I was giving you an alternative that works for me!

gtiso.bsky.social•46 days ago

No I think it's because of the lack of a dedicated numbers keypad on my laptop keyboard. I can't activate any ALT shortcut.

bettytheteapot.bsky.social•47 days ago

kinda wish I hadn't uninstalled the suggested articles so I could see if google had dug up any long form reading for me on "e accent aigu"

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