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symbol, like the temperature one
Thread poster: Lia Fail (X)
Lia Fail (X)
Lia Fail (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:29
Spanish to English
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Mar 9, 2005

100 mg of a drug
75 years

I have a text in which little symbols like the Fahrenheit or Celsius degree symbol appear between numbers and words, as in the examples above. I'm not sure what they are, can anyone enlighten me?
 
Marijke Singer
Marijke Singer  Identity Verified
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Non-breaking spaces Mar 9, 2005

Dear Ailish,

I think you may be displaying all the formatting marks (Tools -> Options -> View). If this is the case, the little symbols are non-breaking spaces to ensure the mg stays with the number should the line break off (handy when you do not want the euro symbol to be split from the amount). Is this it? You can add them yourself: Insert -> Symbol -> Special characters

Kind regards,
Marijke
 
Hynek Palatin
Hynek Palatin  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
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Member (2003)
English to Czech
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Non-breaking space Mar 9, 2005

You didn't specify the application you use, but I guess it's MS Word and the symbols are non-breaking spaces. It's a commonly used - and widely unknown - character that prevents line-breaks.
 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
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Polish to German
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Non-breaking space Mar 9, 2005

Hynek Palatin wrote:

You didn't specify the application you use, but I guess it's MS Word and the symbols are non-breaking spaces. It's a commonly used - and widely unknown - character that prevents line-breaks.


They shall not prevent line breaks, but are intended to keep the number and the symbol together. Ie if you mention measurment, we usualy write "100 m", but to write
100
m
is wrong, thus one uses non-breaking space to keep "100" and "m" together.

To insert this in Word, press "CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE", to enter it in TAG Editor use the proper button.
The ANSI-code for that character is ALT+0160.


Regards
Jerzy
 
Hynek Palatin
Hynek Palatin  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
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No breaks with non-breaking space Mar 9, 2005

Jerzy Czopik wrote:

They shall not prevent line breaks, but are intended to keep the number and the symbol together.


...which is the same, isn't it? The line will not break between the number and the symbol, if non-breaking space is used. Of course they do not prevent line breaks in the whole document.
 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
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Indeed Mar 9, 2005

Hynek Palatin wrote:

Jerzy Czopik wrote:

They shall not prevent line breaks, but are intended to keep the number and the symbol together.


...which is the same, isn't it? The line will not break between the number and the symbol, if non-breaking space is used. Of course they do not prevent line breaks in the whole document.


Cheers
Jerzy
 
Derek Gill Franßen
Derek Gill Franßen  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:29
German to English
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In memoriam
FYI Mar 9, 2005

Just in case you didn't already know, you can do the same with a dash (SHIFT + CTRL + -), which also keeps the preceding and following segments together.
 
Astrid Elke Witte
Astrid Elke Witte  Identity Verified
Germany
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German to English
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Keeping words with a dash together Mar 9, 2005

Thanks, Derek, I knew about the first one mentioned, but I did not know about the dash. It's always useful to know these little things.
 
Lia Fail (X)
Lia Fail (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:29
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Thanks all! Mar 9, 2005

I understand that it's a space but not one that is permitted to separate a number from the concept, so mg will never appear on a separate line from 7, say....

Thanks:-)
 


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symbol, like the temperature one






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