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# Using Hyphenation

By default, LibreOffice moves words that do not fit on a line to the next line. If you want, you can use automatic or manual hyphenation to avoid this behavior.

Hyphenation rules differ between languages. To automatically guess where a word can be hyphenated, you need to have the relevant extension installed. If the rules are missing, an error message or banner will be displayed.
Hyphenation rules are often bundled with dictionaries and installed with LibreOffice depending on the language you picked. If they are missing, you can find relevant extensions by searching for "hyphenation" on the Extensions website.
Learn more about language support on our wiki.

## Automatic Hyphenation

Automatic hyphenation inserts hyphens where they are needed in a paragraph. This option is only available for paragraph styles and individual paragraphs.

### To Automatically Hyphenate Text in a Paragraph

1. Right-click in a paragraph, and choose Paragraph.

2. Click the Text Flow tab.

3. In the Hyphenation area, select the Automatically check box.

4. Click OK.

### To Automatically Hyphenate Text in Multiple Paragraphs

If you want to automatically hyphenate more than one paragraph, use a paragraph style.

For example, enable the automatic hyphenation option for the "Default" paragraph style, and then apply the style to the paragraphs that you want to hyphenate.

1. Choose View - Styles, and then click the Paragraph Styles icon.

2. Right-click the paragraph style that you want to hyphenate, and then choose Modify.

3. Click the Text Flow tab.

4. In the Hyphenation area, select the Automatically check box.

5. Click OK.

6. Apply the style to the paragraphs that you want to hyphenate.

## Manual Hyphenation

You can insert a hyphen where you want on a line, or let LibreOffice search for the words to hyphenate, and then offer a suggested hyphenation.

### To Manually Hyphenate Single Words

To quickly insert a hyphen, click in the word where you want to add the hyphen, and then press CommandCtrl+Hyphen(-).

If you insert a manual hyphen in a word, the word is only hyphenated at the manual hyphen. No additional automatic hyphenation is applied for this word. A word with a manual hyphen will be hyphenated without regard to the settings on the Text Flow tab page.

### To Manually Hyphenate Text in a Selection

1. Select the text that you want to hyphenate.

2. Choose Tools - Language - Hyphenation.

Related Topics

Checking Spelling and Grammar

Thesaurus

Creating and Changing Default and Custom Templates

Preventing Hyphenation of Specific Words

Text Flow

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