A Conversation for English Usage in the Edited Guide
Em dashes
Nonentity Started conversation Sep 30, 2004
Why do you state that you can only do hyphens when there is a perfectly valid keystroke to create the em dash?
What's wrong with typing 'alt+0151' (which yields '—') instead of misusing the hyphen ('-')? GuideML also allows '—' to create the same character.
Also, do you follow the rule that an em dash must not be surrounded by spaces, or, as we're dealing with publication on the web, do you insist on the gaps?
Em dashes
Smij - Formerly Jimster Posted Oct 19, 2004
It's simply because it looks a lot tidier to avoid that particular symbol. Some people use programs like Word to write their entries, which will often create 'smart' Em dashes, but which might corrupt in some browsers.
We try to keep things simple here. It's all our tiny human brains can cope with 
Key: Complain about this post
Em dashes
More Conversations for English Usage in the Edited Guide
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."