Type an Ellipsis (…) as a Single Character

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Wayne Mack

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This is an odd capability that I stumbled upon, but an ellipsis can be entered as a single character in Windows or Mac. For Windows, hold down <Alt>, type 0 1 3 3 on the numeric keypad (the numbers across the top of the keyboard do not work), and release <Alt>. For a Mac, press Option plus semicolon.

I have no idea whether this would be acceptable for submission or whether three periods would be needed.

Reference: Dot-dot-dot (1): how to type an ellipsis - Words to good effect
 
… ...
I fancy that the spacing on the alt version, first above, is slightly larger than the directly typed ellipsis second above :unsure:.
I used a 26 font, for both, to make it clearer.
 
Another ellipsis factoid (the one that led me to the single character version) is that the recommended version has spaces between the periods " . . . ". Visually, this looks nothing like the single character representation.
 
As ever, Wikipedia provides an answer

Ellipsis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Opinions differ as to how to render ellipses in printed material.
According to The Chicago Manual of Style, it should consist of three periods, each separated from its neighbor by a non-breaking space: . . .
According to the AP Stylebook, the periods should be rendered with no space between them: ...
The Oxford Style Guide recommends setting the ellipsis as a single character … or as a series of three (narrow) spaced dots surrounded by spaces, thus: . . .

So, as usual, it depends...
 
I wish that Word or Google Docs didn't autocorrect the "..." into one character. Each time that it does the spacing between each period narrows and I prefer it with more of a gap in between. I'm sure there is a way to turn off that autospacing in the options tab in either program, but I haven't looked for it yet. . . ah well.

That is cool on the <Alt> code shortcut though. I'm always curious to know more of what's hidden in Word's programming.
 
Phyrebrat said:
If you have Scrivener, it also does this automatically (as well as converting two hyphens to n-dashes).

I love Scrivener, me. :)
Click to expand...
I'm using LibreOffice 7.2.1.2 and it will automatically convert two dashes to an em-dash, but does not convert any variation of periods to an ellipsis character. I find this merely a curiosity and I can easily do a document-wide search and replace to go to the single character rendition, if requested.
 
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