Do you hyphenate your book?

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Southpaw

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So, I just switched over to MS Word and it automatically hyphenates. Is that okay or should I figure out how to turn it off?
 

Snowstorm

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Wow, that's a new one on me. I'd turn it off so I have the option to hyphenate. I don't trust Word to autocorrect correctly.
 

Jamesaritchie

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You should never hyphenate in a manuscript, so turn it off.
 

Stijn Hommes

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If you did hyphenate it, you'd annoy the person who does the layout for the book.
Something that needs to be hyphenated on a manuscript page, probably isn't in the final book because that's got an entirely different layout. The word isn't going to be where it is now.
 

maestrowork

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So, I just switched over to MS Word and it automatically hyphenates. Is that okay or should I figure out how to turn it off?

Turn it off -- there's a setting in document or page layout or paragraph formatting (?) to turn off hyphenation.

Leave that stuff to the typesetter. You want your ms. to be formatted as simple as possible. No frills, no thrills.
 

Sevvy

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Turn it off, but be aware that there are words that do use hyphenation (compound adjectives, for example) and that you'll be adding that in manually from now on. I have almost everything turned off in my word processor because if the computer does it for me, I don't learn how to do it myself.
 

The Lonely One

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You should never hyphenate in a manuscript, so turn it off.

Really? Never? This is new to me. I'm not disagreeing, but, wow. What's the reason for this? What if a word is actually hyphenated? Isn't that a grammar mistake if you don't hyphenate compound adjectives?
 

maestrowork

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I don't think James, or anyone means compound words like "well-known." We're talking about the automatic hyphenation word processor does to split words at the end of the line, such as "produce" becoming "pro-duce."
 

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I don't think James, or anyone means compound words like "well-known." We're talking about the automatic hyphenation word processor does to split words at the end of the line, such as "produce" becoming "pro-duce."
In this age of electronic formatting, I've seen such errors get through in all sorts of printed material.
 

blacbird

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In this age of electronic formatting, I've seen such errors get through in all sorts of printed material.

Doesn't make it correct. Doesn't make it look less stupid, either. Aside from compound adjective-noun combinations, just plain don't hyphenate a manuscript. Don't right-justify, either (which is the main reason typesetters hyphenate in final product).

caw
 

maestrowork

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Hyphenate is a leftover from the typewriting/printing press era. Fonts are usually fixed and to create that right-justified look without too many gaps in the line, so they split the last word and use a hyphen.

With everything digital now, there's really no reason to do so. You can right-justify your document in Word and the program will evenly space the words and they will look pretty. There's no point or reason to hyphenate "produce" as "pro-duce." Just keep the word intact as the English god has intended.
 

ComicBent

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Agree with no hyphenation

For a manuscript that will be typeset, you do not want to hyphenate word breaks at the end of a line. In other words, do not type pro-duce or allow the program to break the word with a hyphen at the end of the line.

The reason for this is that the type has to be set for publication, and the presence of all those hyphens makes it necessary for an editor to take them out. On the other hand, *self-fulfilling prophecy* requires a hyphen in the compound adjective, and you should always include such hyphens.

Nonetheless, there are some times when you do want to use automatic hyphenation (just not in manuscript preparation). If you are preparing a newsletter for publication, and it will be published exactly as you prepare it in Word or a desktop publishing program, then you might want to have automatic hyphenation turned on, especially if you have multiple columns in your publication.
 

RJK

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In Word 2007, you actually have to check the box to tell it NOT to hyphenate. It's in the second tab of the Paragraph dialog box.
 

Southpaw

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In Word 2007, you actually have to check the box to tell it NOT to hyphenate. It's in the second tab of the Paragraph dialog box.

Thanks. I did find it. Though it did take me more time than I thought it would. :p It seemed weird that it was automatically on. I mean who hyphenate these days?
 
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