Microsoft is finally adding a real em-dash shortcut to Windows 11 – just as AI made you want to stop using it

• Windows 11 has a new keyboard shortcut to access an em dash
• To get this long dash previously, you had to hold the Alt key and press a combination of numbers (or use the emoji panel)
• Both were clunky methods, and the new shortcut is much better – though it’s arguable whether you should use em dashes at all now, thanks to AI

Ever wanted a long dash (known as an ’em dash’) like this one — in Windows 11, but not known how to produce it? Microsoft is now introducing a keyboard shortcut to allow easier access to these lengthier dashes.

Windows Central noticed that Jen Gentleman, who is Principal Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, flagged up the move on X, noting that it’s on a gradual rollout now (as of the September preview update for Windows 11).

The new keyboard shortcut for an em dash is to press the Windows key with the Shift key and the minus key all together (Windows + Shift + –). The same shortcut but without the Shift key (Windows + –) will get you an ‘en’ dash, which looks like this – as opposed to the em dash which is this — a fair bit longer as you can see.

The naming comes from way back in the day of traditional printing and typesetting when the longer dash was the same size as a capital M (em phonetically) and the middling-sized dash was the size of a capital N (en phonetically).

Previously, if you wanted an em dash in Windows you had to hold down the Alt key while pressing the numbers 0151 on the number pad – which was ridiculous, frankly. Or indeed impossible for those who’ve got a TKL or tenkeyless keyboard (like me), a more compact deck that does away with said number pad (pressing the numbers above the keyboard deck won’t work, by the way).

Those with a TKL keyboard could access the em dash by using the emoji picker panel which can be summoned with the Windows key and full-stop (Windows + .), with the dash hiding in the symbols tab.

That’s a clunky way of working in both cases, so at least now, fans of this longer dash on Windows 11 can more easily get to it using just a three-key combo. Although the fact that this change has come now is somewhat ironic, as having waited so long for a better way to access the em dash in Microsoft’s OS, it may not be advisable to use this spin on the punctuation anyway. Why not? I’ll discuss that next.

Analysis: a dash decision

In modern times, there’s a reason that the em dash has fallen out of favor rather, and that’s a consistent observation that AI-created content tends to use this particular spin on the dash.

Personally, I use the en dash – like this – when I should really be using the longer form, at least technically speaking, going by the strict definition of dashes (though I’m not going to get into a punctuation lesson here). I feel the em dash looks a bit cumbersome and in-your-face compared to the en variety, and literally drawn-out, but anyway, I digress. The reason you shouldn’t use the long dash these days, in theory, is because people might think that whatever you’ve written has been crafted by AI.

As Windows Central points out, it seems to be true that ChatGPT and other Large Language Model-based AIs do seem to favor the em dash more than human writers. It’s something we’ve also written about at TechRadar, so there’s some cause to pause before adopting it for that reason in contemporary times. Not that human writers don’t use the em dash, of course, but still.

At any rate, the wisdom of this dash decision aside, if you do want to take the em dash plunge, at least now you can type it in Windows 11 without having to press a combo of buttons akin to some kind of console cheat code.

Meanwhile, on the Apple side of the desktop fence, Mac owners have been able to access the em dash via a simple keyboard shortcut for ages. And what is that shortcut? Funny you should ask, but take the new Windows 11 three-key combo, then replace the Windows key with the Option key, and there you have the macOS version (Option + Shift + –).

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