Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Specifying an Index Page-Range Separator.
When you insert the index field in your document you can indicate how you want Word to separate page ranges in your index. Normally, Word uses a dash to separate the numbers in a range, as in the following example:
Widgets: 27–41
For some specialized indexes, you may want to use a different character other than a dash. You specify a different page range separator by adding the \g switch to your index field, followed by the character to use as a divider. For instance, the following field use specifies that a colon be used instead of a dash:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: 
{index \g :}
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12592) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Specifying an Index Page-Range Separator.
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2015-11-10 12:09:20
Tony: Yes, that works! The process is to right-click anywhere in the Index, left-click on "Toggle Field Codes", then insert into that { INDEX ...} line
g "-" where the hyphen between the required quotation marks is not a normal hyphen, but a nonbreaking, most easily inserted by CTRL+SHIFT+HYPHEN. Then right-click on that { INDEX ... } code field, left-click on "Toggle Field Codes" to again see the index, right-click in index, left-click on "Update Field" -- and there will be no more dangling hyphens at the ends of index lines between the page #s of ranges. Thanks!
2015-11-09 06:58:17
Tony Nixon
@Pierre - I've not been able to test this but you _might_ be able to specify a nonbreaking hyphen as the separator ALT0173
2015-11-06 11:41:09
Using the top example Widgets: 27-41 is there a way to keep it from breaking if at end of an index line: Widgets: 27-
41 so it would keep 27-41 together?
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