Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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, and 2013. 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, and 2013. 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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