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Re: Hyphenation best practices

for

From: Bevi Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Jan 5, 2010 12:06PM

Those of us from the professional publishing world learn the keyboard/ASCII
characters for en-dashes, em-dashes, and other typographic glyphs.

If we want our information correctly interpreted by computers - which
includes screen readers, search engines, and content management systems - we
need to use the correct glyph at the right time.

- hyphen used for hyphenation and compound words, such as
blue-collar worker.

- em-dash (Alt + 0151) used to indicate a break in the sentence
structure, a phrase, or clause.

- en-dash (Alt + 0150) connects a series of numbers, such as
2001-2010, or a compound adjective, such as Monday-Friday sessions.

My company created character charts eons ago that are still valid today.
Download them from our archives at
http://www.pubcom.com/downloads/Character-Chart.pdf

Strict typesetting protocol of yesteryear was to set em-dashes "tight"
without spaces.
But today that rule is loosened; because of a lack of hyphenation on
websites, many style guides and editors allow "spaced" em-dashes so that
HTML text can reflow more easily and keep words visually more readable.

However, I don't believe spaced or tight em-dashes affect 508 accessibility
one iota.

--Bevi
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Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED> | www.PubCom.com
Consultants + Trainers + Designers | for print, web, marketing, Acrobat, &
508
PublishingDC Group Co-Moderator |
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PublishingDC
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