View source for Template:Zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner/doc

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{{high-use}}
{{COinS safe|y}}
{{Template shortcuts |nsmdns|nsmdashns|nsemdashns|mdashb}}
{{Contains special characters}}
{{Infobox punctuation mark|mark=—
|variant1=–|caption1=En dash
|variant2=—|caption2=Em dash
|variant3=‒|caption3=Figure dash
|variant4=―|caption4=Horizontal bar}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2011}}

This is the '''zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner''' template; it renders like this (without the quote marks):&nbsp;"&#8205;&mdash;&#8204;" 

It works similarly to the HTML markup sequence <code>'''&amp;#8205;&amp;mdash;&amp;#8204;'''</code> i.e. a [[zero-width joiner]] (which will ''not'' line-break and will ''not'' collapse together with words that come before the template), a long dash (known as an [[Dash#Em dash|em dash]]), and a [[zero-width non-joiner]] (which ''will'' line-break and ''will'' collapse together with words that come after the template). In essence, it is an em dash that will not break on the left side but will break on the right side if needed.

The recommended usage is to use ''no'' space before the template and ''no'' space after the template, like this:

::<nowiki>He had three sons{{zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}}Jack, Tony, and Hector</nowiki>
:This will render no spaces on each side of the em dash, like this:
::He had three sons{{nsmdns}}Jack, Tony, and Hector
:A line break will not come ''before'' one of the dashes but a line break may come ''after'' one of the dashes as rendered here:
::We went to the store{{zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}}but not the normal way{{zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}}
::we headed north{{zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}}instead of south.

The template is used to conjoin words with an em dash but with a zero width joiner before the em dash and a zero width non-joiner after the em dash. Others uses of the template "zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner" are within other templates, tables, lists, and similar things to provide a separator between items. It is also to be consistent so that the article editor can use their choice of '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>bull}}''', '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>dot}}''', '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>middot}}''', '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>spaced en dash}}''', '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>spaced en dash space}}''', or '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}}''' and not have to insert the {{•}}, {{dot}}, {{middot}}, {{spaced en dash}}, {{spaced en dash space}}, or {{zero width joiner em dash zero width non joiner}} symbols; they can use any of these templates as a simple macro. 

See above and right, for shortcuts editors can use to easily implement this template in articles, or on any other pages. They are [[mnemonic]]{{nsmdns}}pick the one that is easiest for you to remember and recognize.

== Dot sizes ==

{{Dot size}}

== See also ==

* {{tn|·}}, which produces a spaced bold [[interpunct]] ("middot"): "{{·}}"
* {{tn|•}}, which produces a spaced bullet-point: "{{•}}"
* {{tn|\}}, which produces a spaced (forward-)slash: "{{\}}"
* {{tn|em dash}}, which produces an (unspaced) [[Dash#Em dash|em dash]]: "{{mdash}}"
* {{tn|en dash}}, which produces an (unspaced) [[Dash#En dash|en dash]]: "{{ndash}}"
* {{tn|spaced en dash}}, which produces a non-breaking space, followed by an [[Dash#En dash|en dash]], and then a breaking space: "{{snd}}"
* {{tn|spaced en dash space}}, which produces an [[Dash#En dash|en dash]] preceded and followed by a non-breaking space:  "{{snds}}"
* {{tn|soft hyphen}}, which produces a [[soft hyphen]] to force a visible hyphen at the end of a long word if needed
* [[MOS:DASH]]
* [[Non-breaking space]]
* [[User:Tony1/How to use hyphens and dashes]]

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[[Category:Typing-aid templates|En dash, spaced]]
[[Category:Character-substitution templates]]
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