Publisher Hyphenation – Turn It Off!

I love creating cards and newsletters in Publisher, but one of the things that bothers me is the constant hyphenation of words within my text boxes.  I do not want my address to say “Clear-water,” okay?  Just put the words on one line and I’ll adjust the margins or Text Box size if needed.

Turn off Automatic Hyphenation

To turn off hyphenation within a Text Box, you will need to create a text box with a few words.  Is the Text Box selected?  Do you see the eight-little circle handles around the edges and corners?  If not drag through a few words inside the Text Box until it is selected.  (Always select your text first to make changes).  Once you select the text, or click your Text Box, a context sensitive tab will appear called “Text Box.”  (I call these magic tabs, since they appear and disappear like magic.)

Click on the Text Box tab on the menu.  On the far left in the Text section, click on Hyphenation.  The Hyphenation window will appear.  Another way to get directly to the Hyphenation window is by pressing Ctrl-Shift-H at the same time – “H” for “hyphenate.” By default, there is a check in the box next to “Automatically hyphenate the story.”  Uncheck that box by clicking the check.  Is it unchecked now?  Click OK.

Your hyphens will disappear and the words will wrap to the next line.

Change Default Hyphenation

I used to do this in every document, until I found out how to change it so that default was not NOT hyphenate my story.  Default means the way things are set when you open Publisher.  Microsoft 365 sets Publisher to automatically hyphenate my story.  I want to change that!

In the File tab, click on Options near the very bottom left.  The Publisher Options window will open.  In the Publisher Options window, select the Advanced features in the Navigation pane on the left.

In the Editing Options section, uncheck “Automatically hyphenate in new text boxes.”  Then click OK.  The new default for your computer will be to NOT automatically hyphenate your text in Publisher.

Turn on Automatic Hyphenation

If you do want Publisher to hyphenate one Text Box, simply turn on automatic hyphenation for that Text Box with the procedure shown above.  Cntl-Shift-H for the Hyphenation window, then check the hyphenation box and OK!  You are all set.