WD2000: No-Width Breaks Available for Asian Languages (240624)

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Word 2000, two new special characters can be inserted from the Symbols dialog box (on the Insert menu, click Symbol and then click the Special Characters tab). These two new special characters are:

No-Width Optional Break

-and-
No-Width Non Break

This article describes these two new special characters and when they are used.

MORE INFORMATION

In some Asian languages, characters are placed beside or on top of one another. Also, there may be no space between words, as the English language has.

To prevent the incorrect breaking of English (US) text, Microsoft Word provides special characters for manually controlling where words break, such as the Space (by pressing the SPACEBAR) and Non-Breaking Space (by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR). When these characters are used, Word prevents the word or phrase from incorrectly wrapping to the next line and either causes the entire word or phrase to wrap to the next line of text or controls how much text breaks to the next line. In the English (US) language, spaces and non-breaking spaces are used to represent word-breaking.

Similarly, when you type in an Asian language, you can control where a word or phrase breaks if it falls at the end of a line by using the special characters No-Width Optional Break and No-Width Non Break.

Character                   Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

No-Width Optional Break     A no-width optional break is used to control
                            where a word or phrase breaks if it falls at
                            the end of a line. This special character is
                            similar to a space character.

No-Width Non Break          A no-width non break is used to prevent a word,
                            number, or phrase from breaking if it falls
                            at the end of a line. Microsoft Word 
                            moves the entire item to the beginning of the
                            next line. This special character is similar
                            to a non-breaking space character.