Ever wondered why em dashes are suddenly everywhere? AI loves them — here’s why and how to use one on Windows 11.

The em dash keyboard shortcut differs depending on if you're using a Mac or PC. On a PC, you can use an Emoji keyboard or type the "Alt Code," Alt + 0151.

Using AutoHotKey, you can map any key combination to any character — or even sequence of characters. For example, I've set Alt-hyphen to produce an en dash and Shift-Alt-hyphen to produce an em dash ...

Yes, there is a real difference between a hyphen vs. dash. And here's how these tiny marks can make a big difference in your writing.

But you unlock even more strange characters if you try the technique on symbols in the iPhone keyboard. Hold on a hyphen to unlock the longer (and longer still!) en-dash and em-dash.