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Is there a way how to set manual word breaks with a hyphenation character in Google Docs?

I do not mean setting a manual - but an invisible character.

I searched the help and forums but just found old replies saying "do a feature request".


Since the recent answers did not get the question. Here is an example, what is needed:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor thisismy-
superlongword ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 

The word thisismysuperlongword should get a hyphenation after y and break into two parts. But it should (on one line) still be considered as one word.

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  • Just to confirm, I think what you are asking for is the equivalent of HTML's "Kilima­njaro", which will, but only when necessary, break the word with a hyphen between the "a" and the "n". Jul 24, 2021 at 0:41
  • Yes, a so-called "soft hyphen" to break words: "This character is not rendered visibly; instead, it suggests a place where the browser might choose to break the word if necessary." - But as far as I know you cannot insert HTML into a Google document. webapps.stackexchange.com/q/50273/51145
    – Avatar
    Jul 24, 2021 at 6:26
  • 1
    All the answers give workarounds, but don't respond to the actual question. My answer did answer the question (it's currently not possible to do what is asked for) and provided a link to a google-support page where this feature has been requested. ¶ Despite that, my answer was deleted. Why? I'd say that all the other answers are more deletion-worthy. Jul 27, 2021 at 23:16
  • Saying that there's no way to do it is not an answer. The top answer does answer the question, as explained in its comments. It may be crude, but it is a way to do what is being asked. Trying to say that there's no way to do it, especially after a way to do it has been offered, is a bad habit which is not helpful to anyone.
    – Lex
    Oct 13, 2021 at 22:11

3 Answers 3

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Edit: As pointed out by Konrad Rudolph in a comment reply here, this solution no longer works. It seems Google broke it. They may restore it in the future, so I'm leaving this answer intact in hopes they fix the bug.

Use a zero-width space character. Here's the Wikipedia article for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-width_space

Adding it to your document can be difficult. I'm not sure how to do it the right way, but I, personally, just go to the following page and click the "zero-width space" button to copy it to my clipboard, then paste it into my document: https://beautifuldingbats.com/whitespace/

With this zero-width space character, just place it immediately after the manual hyphen you've added to force a line break.

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  • 2
    "immediately after the manual hyphen you've added to force a line break". I think the question wants the hyphen to be automatically added, but only when necessary, the equivalent to HTML's ­ entity. Jul 24, 2021 at 0:36
  • 1
    It doesn't. The OP's question specifically asks "Is there a way how to set manual word breaks with a hyphenation character in Google Docs?". My answer provides a way to set manual word breaks with a hyphenation character in Google Docs.
    – Lex
    Jul 24, 2021 at 20:13
  • 1
    See the comment with the question. The OP clarified that what is needed is "a so-called "soft hyphen" to break words". Jul 24, 2021 at 20:23
  • 1
    It is the problem that the question is looking to solve though. The problem is solved by using that zero-width space where necessary.
    – Lex
    Jul 27, 2021 at 3:37
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    Read the OP's comment on the question. He says that the equivalent of a soft-hyphen is what is needed. E.g. in HTML, "… Kilimanjaro …." might get broken at the end of a line as "… Kiliman-jaro …". If I want it to break as "… Kilima-njaro …" I would enter it as "… Kilima­njaro …" and the right thing will happen. A zero-width space would break it in the correct place, but would not put a hyphen at the end of the line. Adding "a manual hyphen" isn't an option, one can't know in advance whether a line will break. Jul 27, 2021 at 13:52
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  • Open the required Google Doc
  • Select Add-ons > Get add-ons
  • Search for Consistency Checker
  • Click the Free button and give permission
  • Now you can check for hyphenation from the Add-ons menu
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  • 7
    This tool just checks that no words appear with different hyphenation styles (email vs e-mail) in the document, but does nothing in regards to line breaks, which is what the question is about.
    – finitud
    Jan 19, 2019 at 11:55
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To create a deliberate space I add a "non-breaking space". It's a blank character. They come in various widths (from zero through to big long tabs).

On PC I use alt-0160 (on the keypad numbers) which will type a blank space the size of a lowercase n that is interpreted as a letter rather than a gap. This allows a two strings of characters to be parsed as one "word" by the software, and will stop it from "orphaning" (leaving a word alone on the next line).

In the menu option Insert — Ω Special Characters, if you type "space" into the search box it will give you a variety of different sized space options of different widths.

Here is more information about how to type in a non-breaking space in other systems. https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/n/nbsp.htm

If you have already used hyphens, you can do a "find and replace" within Google Docs, but be mindful that it will replace all the hyphens you have used regardless of what you have used them for.

Hope this helps.

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  • 2
    I think the question wants the hyphen to be automatically added, but only when necessary, the equivalent to HTML's ­ entity. A non-breaking-space is the exact opposite of this. Jul 24, 2021 at 0:43

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