How to Type Em Dash — and En Dash – on Windows: Shortcuts and Tricks

Looking to make intermissions look right typographically or give a range of numbers with a dash that is neither too long nor too short — but struggling to find the appropriate dashes on your keyboard? Find out here how (and when) to effortlessly type em dash ( — ) and en dash (–) on Windows.

First, Counting Days from February to March

Counting days is barely easy, especially across two months, and worse from February to March.

In Sweden and the 15th century, you had to choose between 28, 29 and 30 (yes, 30, a story of its own) days for February, except for the year 1753, when February had a total of 17 days (to finally synchronize Sweden’s calendar with the Gregorian counting already introduced in Norway and Denmark, for example — with similarly “missing” days).

Maybe we should just write Feb 5–Mar 1 and let the reader do the counting?

How to Type Em Dash (—) and En Dash (–) on Windows 10/11

Using the Em Dash and En Dash Alt Codes

Using the Windows Touch On-Screen Keyboard

To input em dash or en dash characters swiftly using the Windows on-screen (touch) keyboard:

1. Position the text input cursor where you want to insert the dash.
2. Bring up the Windows touch keyboard.
3. Click or tap and hold the - (dash) key on the touch keyboard.
4. Move the cursor until the em dash — or en dash – key is highlighted.
5. Release the mouse cursor or remove your finger to insert the highlighted character.
   

Dashing off into the sunset — ?

⇆ Tip me a tea

Tips help fuel these email and tech how-tos.

Locating Em Dash in the Windows Emoji Panel

To use the Windows 11 emoji panel to insert — or –:

1. Put the text cursor where the em dash or en dash is to appear.
2. Open the Windows emoji panel.
   Here’s how: Press Windows . (period), for example, to open the emoji panel.
3. Go to the Symbols tab.
4. Scroll to General punctuation.
5. Click or tap the em dash — or en dash – character to insert it.
   No search: The eomiji panel knows no descriptions for its characters, so you cannot search for dash, for example, only locate the characters by appearance.
   

On a Mac? How to Insert Em-Dash ( — ) and En-Dash ( – ) on a Mac
Using Linux? How to Insert En Dash – and Em Dash — on Linux

Using Windows Character Map to Insert Em Dash and En Dash

To input en- and em dash using the Windows Character Map application:

1. Open Character Map.
   Here’s how: Open the Windows Start menu, for example, search for character map, and select Character Map.
2. Click the Search for : field.
   No search: If you do not see Search for :, check Advanced view first.
3. Type em dash or en dash for the respective characters.
4. Now click Search.
5. Highlight the desired character.
6. Click Select.
7. Now click Copy to copy em or en dash to the clipboard for pasting.
   

Using Copy and Paste to Input Em Dash and En Dash

Instead of typing Alt-codes or juggling on-screen utilities, you can also paste the dash characters, of course.

Em dash  —	copy —
En dash –	copy –

How to Insert Em Dash and En Dash in Word for Windows

Word for Windows includes its own shortcuts as well as text replacement that make inserting dashes easier.

How to Type Em Dash (—) and En Dash (–) on Windows 10/11: FAQ

Can I enter em dash or en dash with the Windows 10 emoji panel?

No.

The emoji panel does not include hyphens on Windows 10.

How do I insert em dash and en dash using LaTeX?

To insert an em dash in LaTeX, you can use \textemdash; for en dash, employ \textendash, for example.

(Tested with Windows 10 Version 22H2 and Windows 11 Version 23H2–25H2; first published March 2024, last updated January 2026)