Writing & StyleStyle guide
Em Dash Spacing
Spacing around an em dash is a house-style choice, not a property of the Unicode character itself. Microsoft style uses no spaces around em dashes, while other publishers may follow different conventions.
Follow your house style. Microsoft uses em dashes with no spaces around them: “text—text.” Other editorial systems may space them differently.
Key details
Core Issuewhether spaces appear before and after an em dash
Microsoft Styleno spaces around em dashes
Scopehouse-style dependent
Important caveats
Style Boundary
A no-space rule is Microsoft house style, not a universal character-encoding rule.
Further guidance
Microsoft Style
Microsoft’s punctuation guidance says not to use spaces around em dashes.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Dashes and hyphens — Microsoft Style Guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · En-dash and em-dash functions, including number ranges and sentence breaks