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I learned how to type em-dashes on Mac (option-shift-hyphen) 10+ years ago and have been using them with some frequency since then. Picking 2023, here are some

I learned how to type em-dashes on Mac (option-shift-hyphen) 10+ years ago and have been using them with some frequency since then. Picking 2023, here are some comments with emdashes that I personally typed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38796943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36916740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36125055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34487782

pmarreck 1y ago
I have a Mac (and am very familiar with all its nifty shortcuts) but also a Windows and Linux machine, how would one type it on those?
- dialup_sounds 1y ago
  Word and Outlook auto-replace double hyphens "--" with em-dashes "—", which is probably the most commonly used way on Windows.
  - pmarreck 1y ago
    Yeah, but that's not global. Mac has global keyboard entries for these things, and they are incredibly easy.
- sunshowers 1y ago
  The compose key works well on Linux. Typically mapped to right alt, compose-hyphen-hyphen-hyphen produces an em dash. (hyphen-hyphen-period produces an en dash.)
  - pmarreck 1y ago
    That's at least halfway between the difficulty of it on Mac and Windows.
    - sunshowers 1y ago
      Not really. Maybe 20%.
    - ansgri 1y ago
      Given the compose sequences are mnemonic, I’d prefer it over Mac every time. Compare Compose+<< and >> for «» to Opt+[ and Opt+Sh+[ on Mac. Which may or may not work depending on locale.
- cpeterso 1y ago
  To enter an em dash on Windows, hold down Alt and type 0 1 5 1 on your keyboard’s numpad. (Alt 0 1 5 0 for an en dash.) This only works with numpad number keys so laptop users are out of luck.
  - pmarreck 1y ago
    It is insane that in 2025, this is an accepted way to type lesser-used characters on Windows still, when the Mac has had the Option key typing umlauts and em-dashes extremely simply (an umlauted U is literally option-u, u... Ironically, I'm currently on a Windows machine so I cannot even type it) literally since 1984. My family is German (I'm firstborn American) so this was a huge sell for the Mac way back then Sad to see that Windows is still stuck in the PS/2 days here
    - beAbU 1y ago
      If you install Power Toys, you get a feature called "Quick Accent" which gives you a shortcut to get basically any symbol quickly. Hold down the key that's the most like the one you are looking for, and press space. A little menu pops up where you can cycle through all the variants. So `- + space` brings up a menu with all the "dashy" characters. There's 12 of them! There is also `Win + .` which brings up an emoji menu, where you can also access the symbols list.

pmarreck 1y ago

I have a Mac (and am very familiar with all its nifty shortcuts) but also a Windows and Linux machine, how would one type it on those?

dialup_sounds 1y ago
Word and Outlook auto-replace double hyphens "--" with em-dashes "—", which is probably the most commonly used way on Windows.
- pmarreck 1y ago
  Yeah, but that's not global. Mac has global keyboard entries for these things, and they are incredibly easy.
sunshowers 1y ago
The compose key works well on Linux. Typically mapped to right alt, compose-hyphen-hyphen-hyphen produces an em dash. (hyphen-hyphen-period produces an en dash.)
- pmarreck 1y ago
  That's at least halfway between the difficulty of it on Mac and Windows.
  - sunshowers 1y ago
    Not really. Maybe 20%.
  - ansgri 1y ago
    Given the compose sequences are mnemonic, I’d prefer it over Mac every time. Compare Compose+<< and >> for «» to Opt+[ and Opt+Sh+[ on Mac. Which may or may not work depending on locale.
cpeterso 1y ago
To enter an em dash on Windows, hold down Alt and type 0 1 5 1 on your keyboard’s numpad. (Alt 0 1 5 0 for an en dash.) This only works with numpad number keys so laptop users are out of luck.
- pmarreck 1y ago
  It is insane that in 2025, this is an accepted way to type lesser-used characters on Windows still, when the Mac has had the Option key typing umlauts and em-dashes extremely simply (an umlauted U is literally option-u, u... Ironically, I'm currently on a Windows machine so I cannot even type it) literally since 1984. My family is German (I'm firstborn American) so this was a huge sell for the Mac way back then Sad to see that Windows is still stuck in the PS/2 days here
  - beAbU 1y ago
    If you install Power Toys, you get a feature called "Quick Accent" which gives you a shortcut to get basically any symbol quickly. Hold down the key that's the most like the one you are looking for, and press space. A little menu pops up where you can cycle through all the variants. So `- + space` brings up a menu with all the "dashy" characters. There's 12 of them! There is also `Win + .` which brings up an emoji menu, where you can also access the symbols list.