Comment by zdw
5 months ago
I applaud this data. But how are people actually creating an em-dash in the "add comment" box? Some non-obvious OS-level shortcut?
5 months ago
I applaud this data. But how are people actually creating an em-dash in the "add comment" box? Some non-obvious OS-level shortcut?
On macOS it’s easy—opt+shift+-.
The em-dash used to be a slightly snooty way for Mac users to announce themselves. Sad that the polarity of perception has reversed.
I’ve been typing em-dashes since I got my first MacBook in 2006 and I’m not going to let the AI companies take my beautiful punctuation away from me.
Compose key, alt key codes, WinKey + . on Windows—there are many ways. It's also easy to do on most phone keyboards by holding down the hyphen key for more options.
document.querySelector("textarea").value += '—' in the Javascript console.
Option Shift Hyphen on macOS
You type -- and it autocorrects on iOS.
You can also long-press the dash key on the iOS keyboard.
I've long been a fan of the em dash—one of the first things I did when I migrated back from OSX to Windows was to set up an AutoHotKey function to map <Alt>+<-> to an em dash.