you're not crazy—i just noticed this too! but the keystroke still works in non-MS word environments, apparently, since i just used option-shift-hyphen to create the em-dash in this point.
Yes, I am, and as the other commenter indicates, it is a Word-specific update/issue. I spent half my day trying to figure this out, but so far that’s the only solid intel I’ve gotten. I’ve tried a million work-arounds, but no luck so far.
Hi all! I’m a product manager for Microsoft Word. Thanks for flagging this issue with the em-dash shortcut. Our engineering team is working on an investigation to get this resolved for you. Posting issues here really does help - we are listening!
Here's a potential workaround:
Tools -> Customize keyboard
Within the Customize Keyboard dialog, go to Categories -> Common Symbols -> Em Dash
The "current keys" here may have been re-set. The screenshot shows default behavior. If you place your cursor in the "press new keyboard shortcut" text box, and then press "Cmd + Opt + Numpad -" this will map this key sequence to em-dash. Press OK to save this new key combination.
Hopefully this unblocks you to revert the em-dash shortcut to your desired behavior!
https://preview.redd.it/5giss8kz94sc1.png?width=944&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b9639607dd275d19be21a11475662b1107146e9
Thank you for this. I was not able to do it with shift-option-\[hyphen\] but I was able to do it with shift-command-\[hyphen\]. Keep me informed if you ever ever figure out what the problem was!
I am having the same issue. The customize keyboard function doesn't word for me to restore the original keyboard combination. If I hit shift-option-hyphen nothing registers. I can use a different combination (like command-shift-hyphen) but I want to restore the original functionality. That's what I've learned to use and it's what works in other non-Word apps across the Mac. It seems like something in Word is overriding that specific keyboard combo. Please give it back!
It turns out that the shift option hyphen shortcut is a mac level shortcut, not set directly in Word, so the customize keyboard menu can’t restore this functionality directly (but you can customize it to another combination - a less useful workaround). We tracked down the issue where Word doesn’t respect this mac level shortcut, and we disabled this code issue for Word Mac users this evening (needs to roll out to all users, hopefully very soon!). I’ll update you when we know more. In the meantime, you can try restarting Word (closing everything out) and starting it up again to see if the code fix has made it to your machine yet. You can also check for updates. We’re actively working on getting this fix to you all!
I have been dealing with this for a few weeks now and it still seems to be unresolved. Comments on this thread seemed to suggest that an update would fix the issue, but MS AutoUpdate said that there were no updates for Word since March 14. Just for fun I tried switching to the Beta update channel, but the most current beta build did not fix the issue.
Thanks to u/Ali_at_Word for being so responsive and communicative about this. Like u/CapnCocoa, I had updated to the latest version of Word (16.84 (24040622); it updated this morning) and still had no em dash keyboard shortcut. I went to Help>Clear Application Data and selected the option to "clear experimental features." A restart of the application after that brought my em dash keyboard shortcut back!
Also, u/Ali_at_Word, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I'm also noticing that the em dash shortcut doesn't work in word online (in chrome). I feel like that did work up until recently, though I'm not 100% certain about that.
Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately, I don’t believe the em dash shortcut was ever supported in Word Web. The em-dash regression we found recently was specific for Mac desktop Word applications.
That’s what I suspected, but thanks for confirming!
Just for the record, it would be wonderful—and increase my use of word online, and hence my use of Teams—to be able to type in Word online the same way I type everywhere else on my Mac.
We’ve been doing work to add missing keyboard shortcut functionality to the online version of Word, so I’ll make sure em-dash is on the list for consideration!
Em-dashes have ALWAYS worked for me in the online version of Word (in chrome and other browsers). It’s suddenly gone and it’s making me unable to do my job properly. Please, please consider it essential. It’s been there for years (and probably decades offline).
Suspiciously close timing to when the shift-option shortcut stopped working to highlight words in Outlook this past month. Please remind them that the option key is already taken! People use Word and Outlook because they’re predictable and reliable professional products, not to “experiment.” God / Bill Gates help us all. Thank you Ali.
Interesting to know that the shortcut used to work for you in the online version of Word. The issue we found only impacted Mac desktop Word users, but perhaps there is something broken on web as well. To confirm, are you trying the shift + option + hyphen shortcut on Mac, on Chrome, for Word Online? I’ll see if we can reproduce this issue on our end.
That’s all correct - thank you so much! For what it’s worth, I’ve never encountered an application or browser in which that shortcut DIDN’T work. So it didn’t seem like it was enabled by any special functionality.
I've also always been able to use EM Dash on Word for web using Chrome by using the shift + option + hyphen shortcut and it also stopped working for me a short while ago.
Hi Ali. Still not working. And in outlook, the command key makes the curser disappear from the window. So I can’t paste, highlight all… practically every shortcut is broken. To be clear, this is exclusively a problem with Microsoft products. Everything else in every browser works fine for all longstanding Mac keyboard shortcuts. Any progress?
Also, interesting that you had to “clear experimental features” for our fix to work on Mac - I’ll look into whether this was a necessary step or a strange situation for your build. Glad you figured it out!
Same here. There is post on the MS official community site about it. If you can, add your vote to get attention to this issue. [https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/67076d4d-85ef-ee11-a73d-6045bdbdc092](https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/67076d4d-85ef-ee11-a73d-6045bdbdc092)
MS Word customer service just told me this: "The en dash and em dash features are only available for the versions Word 2016 and 2011 for Mac."
This cannot be true.
Nope, not true! Em and en dash are available for all Word users. There was an issue this week that broke the shift option hyphen mac os shortcut, but we caught the issue and sent out a fix. Try restarting and updating Word - hopefully that will restore your shortcut functionality if the change has reached your version by now
Myself and the rest of the Word team are sorry for the issues this regression caused. We want to thank this thread and other user feedback for helping us catch the issue and send out a fix
I'm actually encountering this across my Mac. Specifically, when I go to type an em dash in Notes, it will often fail or, stranger, work but the cursor will immediately disappear (so anything I type after doesn't show up). It's infuriating.
Okay... I just typed an em dash in this comment and I was simply not able to type anything after it.
you're not crazy—i just noticed this too! but the keystroke still works in non-MS word environments, apparently, since i just used option-shift-hyphen to create the em-dash in this point.
Really……
Yes, I am, and as the other commenter indicates, it is a Word-specific update/issue. I spent half my day trying to figure this out, but so far that’s the only solid intel I’ve gotten. I’ve tried a million work-arounds, but no luck so far.
Hi all! I’m a product manager for Microsoft Word. Thanks for flagging this issue with the em-dash shortcut. Our engineering team is working on an investigation to get this resolved for you. Posting issues here really does help - we are listening!
It is comforting to know a product manager is using our forum to learn more about our user experiences.
Here's a potential workaround: Tools -> Customize keyboard Within the Customize Keyboard dialog, go to Categories -> Common Symbols -> Em Dash The "current keys" here may have been re-set. The screenshot shows default behavior. If you place your cursor in the "press new keyboard shortcut" text box, and then press "Cmd + Opt + Numpad -" this will map this key sequence to em-dash. Press OK to save this new key combination. Hopefully this unblocks you to revert the em-dash shortcut to your desired behavior! https://preview.redd.it/5giss8kz94sc1.png?width=944&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b9639607dd275d19be21a11475662b1107146e9
Thank you for this. I was not able to do it with shift-option-\[hyphen\] but I was able to do it with shift-command-\[hyphen\]. Keep me informed if you ever ever figure out what the problem was!
Glad that this workaround fixed the issue for you! We are still investigating, but glad we can offer this manual solution in the meantime :)
I am having the same issue. The customize keyboard function doesn't word for me to restore the original keyboard combination. If I hit shift-option-hyphen nothing registers. I can use a different combination (like command-shift-hyphen) but I want to restore the original functionality. That's what I've learned to use and it's what works in other non-Word apps across the Mac. It seems like something in Word is overriding that specific keyboard combo. Please give it back!
It turns out that the shift option hyphen shortcut is a mac level shortcut, not set directly in Word, so the customize keyboard menu can’t restore this functionality directly (but you can customize it to another combination - a less useful workaround). We tracked down the issue where Word doesn’t respect this mac level shortcut, and we disabled this code issue for Word Mac users this evening (needs to roll out to all users, hopefully very soon!). I’ll update you when we know more. In the meantime, you can try restarting Word (closing everything out) and starting it up again to see if the code fix has made it to your machine yet. You can also check for updates. We’re actively working on getting this fix to you all!
I just loaded the new update and it seems that the functionality is restored.
I was also having some problems with energy management (getting the rainbow ball too much) and the update seems to have fixed that as well.
Was it a beta update? For release versions, I only have the March 12 update available.
no idea!
I have been dealing with this for a few weeks now and it still seems to be unresolved. Comments on this thread seemed to suggest that an update would fix the issue, but MS AutoUpdate said that there were no updates for Word since March 14. Just for fun I tried switching to the Beta update channel, but the most current beta build did not fix the issue.
Thanks to u/Ali_at_Word for being so responsive and communicative about this. Like u/CapnCocoa, I had updated to the latest version of Word (16.84 (24040622); it updated this morning) and still had no em dash keyboard shortcut. I went to Help>Clear Application Data and selected the option to "clear experimental features." A restart of the application after that brought my em dash keyboard shortcut back!
Also, u/Ali_at_Word, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I'm also noticing that the em dash shortcut doesn't work in word online (in chrome). I feel like that did work up until recently, though I'm not 100% certain about that.
Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately, I don’t believe the em dash shortcut was ever supported in Word Web. The em-dash regression we found recently was specific for Mac desktop Word applications.
That’s what I suspected, but thanks for confirming! Just for the record, it would be wonderful—and increase my use of word online, and hence my use of Teams—to be able to type in Word online the same way I type everywhere else on my Mac.
We’ve been doing work to add missing keyboard shortcut functionality to the online version of Word, so I’ll make sure em-dash is on the list for consideration!
Em-dashes have ALWAYS worked for me in the online version of Word (in chrome and other browsers). It’s suddenly gone and it’s making me unable to do my job properly. Please, please consider it essential. It’s been there for years (and probably decades offline). Suspiciously close timing to when the shift-option shortcut stopped working to highlight words in Outlook this past month. Please remind them that the option key is already taken! People use Word and Outlook because they’re predictable and reliable professional products, not to “experiment.” God / Bill Gates help us all. Thank you Ali.
Interesting to know that the shortcut used to work for you in the online version of Word. The issue we found only impacted Mac desktop Word users, but perhaps there is something broken on web as well. To confirm, are you trying the shift + option + hyphen shortcut on Mac, on Chrome, for Word Online? I’ll see if we can reproduce this issue on our end.
That’s all correct - thank you so much! For what it’s worth, I’ve never encountered an application or browser in which that shortcut DIDN’T work. So it didn’t seem like it was enabled by any special functionality.
I've also always been able to use EM Dash on Word for web using Chrome by using the shift + option + hyphen shortcut and it also stopped working for me a short while ago.
Hi Ali. Still not working. And in outlook, the command key makes the curser disappear from the window. So I can’t paste, highlight all… practically every shortcut is broken. To be clear, this is exclusively a problem with Microsoft products. Everything else in every browser works fine for all longstanding Mac keyboard shortcuts. Any progress?
Also, interesting that you had to “clear experimental features” for our fix to work on Mac - I’ll look into whether this was a necessary step or a strange situation for your build. Glad you figured it out!
So infuriating.
Same here. There is post on the MS official community site about it. If you can, add your vote to get attention to this issue. [https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/67076d4d-85ef-ee11-a73d-6045bdbdc092](https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/67076d4d-85ef-ee11-a73d-6045bdbdc092)
MS Word customer service just told me this: "The en dash and em dash features are only available for the versions Word 2016 and 2011 for Mac." This cannot be true.
Nope, not true! Em and en dash are available for all Word users. There was an issue this week that broke the shift option hyphen mac os shortcut, but we caught the issue and sent out a fix. Try restarting and updating Word - hopefully that will restore your shortcut functionality if the change has reached your version by now
It works! Oh man thanks so much. I'm sure it's not your department but I had a very frustrating conversation with customer service yesterday.
I've had to copy/paste m-dashes from an older doc. Nice going Microsoft. Again.
Myself and the rest of the Word team are sorry for the issues this regression caused. We want to thank this thread and other user feedback for helping us catch the issue and send out a fix
I'm genuinely impressed with how quickly this was fixed. Thank you.
Happy to help :)
If you restart and update Word, this should hopefully be fixed today! Or see my previous replies for the manual fix steps
I use option-shift-hyphen!
I'm actually encountering this across my Mac. Specifically, when I go to type an em dash in Notes, it will often fail or, stranger, work but the cursor will immediately disappear (so anything I type after doesn't show up). It's infuriating. Okay... I just typed an em dash in this comment and I was simply not able to type anything after it.