Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: When to Hyphenate Your Document.

When to Hyphenate Your Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 31, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Word includes a hyphenation tool (on the Layout tab of the ribbon in the Page Setup group) that you can use to make better use of the horizontal text space on your page. You should not need to hyphenate your document often, if you remember these guidelines of when hyphenation is necessary:

Hyphenate only before you print. This should be the last step you do, definitely after spell checking and grammar checking your document (if you do these as separate steps).
Hyphenate after you change printer drivers. Printer drivers affect the horizontal spacing of fonts. Since the horizontal spacing changes, the applicable hyphenation will change, as well.
Hyphenate if you change fonts. It is the font that determines how much text you can get on a line. When you change fonts, you change the amount of text that will fit on a line, and thus change the need for hyphenation.
Hyphenate if you change paper size, paper orientation, page margins, or paragraph indents. Changes in any of these options will cause Word to "reflow" your paragraphs, so what appears on each line will also change.
Hyphenate if you change machines. If you choose to print your document on a different machine than it was developed on, you will undoubtedly be using a different printer driver and perhaps a different version of Word—both of which can affect horizontal spacing of your text.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9657) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: When to Hyphenate Your Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Capitals After Colons

Do you want Word to always capitalize the first letter appearing after a colon? The program won't do it by default, but ...

Discover More

Making Live URLs Into Normal Text

Convert those URLs into regular text! It's easy to do when you follow the steps in this tip.

Discover More

Easily Copying Cell Formatting

Copying table cell formatting from one place to another can be a tedious process as Word doesn't provide a way to do the ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Inserting a Non-Breaking Hyphen

Non-breaking hyphens can come in handy for some types of writing. They force the words (or characters) on both sides of ...

Discover More

Controlling Overtype Mode

Some people like to have Word replace previous information as they type; this is called 'overtype mode.' You can control ...

Discover More

Removing Tabs Used to Indent a Paragraph

You get a document from a colleague and you notice that each paragraph starts with a tab character. Here are a couple of ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is four less than 4?

2014-12-16 08:31:27

Damear

Ok, I know where the confusion is coming from - and I got it from trying to answer Bandito's question of "where to find it?"

(BTW, it's on "Page Layout" tab, first button group - "Page setup").

And when you get there and click the "Hyphenation" button, one of the options popping out is "Manual". Apparently that's the point all the items in this article refer to. I don't remember seeing manual hyphenation in pre-Ribbon versions of Word (and I still use the Alt, T, L, H shortcut to get to the automatic hyphenation dialog).

I still don't see the benefit of manual hyphenation though - unless you have a really weak PC that has trouble coping with automatic hyphenation, but that's not the kind of PC you would install Office 2013 or Windows 7 anyway.

2014-12-15 16:12:21

Bandito

I agree with some of the others here regarding the autohypehnate option. Doesn't it do the job as you create and edit your document?

Also, when mentioning a tool available in Word, it would be nice if you mentioned where to find it.

Keep sharing!

2014-12-14 15:27:08

PFL

None of the bullet points that denote some of the conditions that affect the layout after hyphenation must affect your work. The point of the article seems (to me) to be cautious when those kinds of changes occur.

2014-12-14 12:48:32

Damear

PFL, I'm still not getting it. As Maryland points out, I just enable hyphenation, and Word hyphenates my document automatically. Hyphenation is then readjusted automatically whenever I edit text, change margins, printers, machines, whatever.

2014-12-13 16:33:41

Maryland, USA

I don't understand how turning autohyphenate "On" from the outset makes me worse off. It has no effect on spell checking, live or otherwise. I write proposals that are nearly always page-limited. I rely on autohyphenation to let me fit a paragraph into as few lines as possible. I can't wait until it's time to PDF; I need to know long before then whether a sentence must be cut or a figure repositioned or rethought.

2014-12-13 16:19:31

PFL

Damear, I think you missed the entire concept of the article. Read it critically again.

2014-12-13 05:43:52

Damear

Doesn't hyphenation work automatically in the background, so you don't need to hyphenate every five minutes?

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.