The No-Width Optional Break symbol. Heretofore known as NWOB™. Assign a shortcut key to it and use it, your word text flow (and readers) will thank you. A NWOB™ is a symbol that tells Word that “don’t insert a visible space here, but if you need to break this text across two lines, this is a good place to do it.” This comes in handy if you have to write Shakespearesque prose like the following: “service provided as part of a combined authentication/authorization/payment module”. See how the lines wrap in an awkward, unsightly manner? (UPDATE: depending on your browser and the weather pattern, automatic breaks may actually already be inserted around the /s. Not so in Word - trust me.) With the NWOB™, you too can flow your text gently to the margins of your document, leaving no unsightly large space behind in your document. For just three easy payments of $19.99… To insert a NWOB™ go to the Insert tab and click Symbol, then More Symbols. Then click the Special Characters tab, scroll down and locate the No-Width Optional Break. Select it, and before you do anything hasty, add a shortcut key, now that you know about it, you’ll want to use the NWOB™ again. (I use Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Space.) So now your same Pulitzer worthy prose can flow more naturally: “service provided as part of a combined authentication/authorization/payment module”. PS! The ​ numeric reference is HTML4’s version of the NWOB™. I use it above in my Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Space shortcut. Note that annoyingly, Live Writer is not kind to this character, it removes it when you enter the Source panel.
posted by Oskar Austegard at 4:55 AM on Oct 27, 2010
"MS Word tip of the Day"
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