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I want to attribute quotes properly, but sometimes when I'm typing in Word, the quote will end right before the end of a line, putting the em dash there and pushing the actual name to the next line. I know about non-breaking spaces for in between two words by pushing Alt+0160, but I don't want a space after my dash. This also happens with number ranges where the numbers get nonideally separated.

Is there a way I can stop this from happening?

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The general-purpose character for stopping line breaks between characters is the word joiner. This can be easily typed with Alt+8288. Just type this invisible character between your dash and what you're trying to keep it attached to.

If the dash you're trying to type is ever a hyphen, you can save a character by instead typing the non-breaking hyphen with Alt+0173.

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    Alt+8288 (= Unicode 2060) doesn't work for me at all in this situation. I would use a Zero Width Joiner character (Unicode 200d) after the dash and, to prevent the word before the dash from also forcibly moved down to the next line along with it, a Zero Width Space character (Unicode 200b) before it.
    – cnread
    Commented Apr 23, 2017 at 1:12
  • @cnread That's an option, but that's intended to link characters in cursive scripts, while the word joiner is the character intended specifically for this. The word joiner works correctly for me. Oddly, Word treats the Zero Width Joiner as being a right-to-left character it seems, since a primary use is with Arabic scripts.
    – Ullallulloo
    Commented Apr 23, 2017 at 4:41
  • Not to be a jerk, but the same objection that you've raised for ZWJ could be raised for WJ. As the wiki you linked to states, it's 'used separate words when using scripts that do not use explicit spacing.' Still, Unicode doesn't mention any language-specific intended use for either character, or for ZWSP, so I, for one, consider them all 'fair game.' (Also, my copy of Word doesn't seem to treat ZWJ as an RTL character.) So if WJ works for you, you should use it, obviously. But I'll leave my earlier comment in case other users have a similar question and WJ doesn't work for them either.
    – cnread
    Commented Apr 23, 2017 at 5:43
  • Alright, fair enough.
    – Ullallulloo
    Commented Apr 23, 2017 at 13:25
  • This doesn't work in Outlook. I know this is about Word but I just thought I'd throw this out there.
    – KJ6BWB
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 19:58

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