How do you type en and em dashes in Kato tool?

Kató Q&A Kató FAQs
#1

Hello fellow-translators,

I wonder if you could kindly advise how you manage to produce an en and em dash using the Kato tool. I notice that the usual combination “Ctrl and -” does not work in this environment.

For your reference: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hyphens-and-dashes/

Also, I’m wondering why the Translation Quality topic is locked? :thinking:

Apologies if this is not the right thread to post this question.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Natalia

#2

Hi @na2alia_m :cherry_blossom:

Welcome to the community. :heavy_heart_exclamation:

Actually, It does not seem to me that there is any problem using “Ctrl + -”. I am wondering why it did not work with you. :thinking:

Regarding your question about the Translation Quality topic, maybe taking a look to this blog will help you to learn more about the platform and different trust levels.

Hope this could help. :smiley:
Bests. :heart: :dizzy:

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#3

Hello Salwa,

Thanks for your sweet welcome. :pray:

“Ctlr and -” work perfectly well in a text editor, but not in Kato transl tool, as it reacts to this combination of keys the same way as the browser does - zooms out instead of typing the dash. So sadly I have to use hyphens in my translations even knowing it’s incorrect, just bcz I could not figure out the way to type in em dashes.

Hope it helps to explain the issue.

Yes, there’s a lot to learn about the platform and I have no idea what “trust levels” are. Will be making use of the blog, of course.

Thank you.

Natalia :four_leaf_clover:

#4

Hello @na2alia_m :blush:
That’s quite odd, as @SalwaAlrifai pointed out Ctrl + - should work. Did you give it another try? :star:
If you feel a bit lost please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! The TWB Community team is always happy to help and to navigate you through the multiple platforms. If you haven’t already, please take a look at our Welcome Pack for translators

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#5

Hi Carolina :blush:

Thanks for reaching out.

Try as I might, unlike a text editor, it doesn’t work in the browser. And the Kato tool is based on Chrome. Yes, I should have a closer look at the Welcome Pack.

Thanks!

Natalia

#6

Hi Natalia, I learned something new thanks to you because I didn’t know the difference between en dash and the em dash :slight_smile: thank you!
I tried and Ctrl + - doesn’t work at all for me, it just zooms out (same if I try in this forum). Maybe @Manuel has a solution?

#7

Hey there! You can use the built-in keyboard shortcuts:

  • Em dash (—): Alt+0151
  • En dash (–): Alt+0150

If you’re working on a Mac:

  • Em dash (—): Shift-Alt-hyphen or Command + M
  • En dash (–): Alt-hyphen

I hope these help!

3 Likes
#8

Hi Ambra,

You are welcome. :slightly_smiling_face: It’s a pleasure to bring in a bit of useful info.

Natalia

#9

Thanks, Manuel.

Sadly, it doesn’t work either. Not sure why. I’ve tried a few things on my win10 desktop.

http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/how-to-create-an-em-dash/

:thinking:

#10

Hmm… curious. Are you working from Windows 10? Do you have a number pad in your keyboard? The key combinations I shared above will work o lu with a number pad, not with the keys above the QWERTY row of your keyboard.

#11

Lovely. It does work from the number pad, Manuel. :dizzy: :100: :boom:

Appreciate you. :+1:

2 Likes
#12

Perfect :smiley:. And a bonus one that I love: Alt + 174 and 175 will give you « and ». What a pleasure to be able to use the in-line quotation marks in Spanish :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#13

You are a mine of useful information, Manuel. :star_struck:The quotation marks are the same in Russian (I was wondering about them, too), so your tip comes very handy.

Have a lovely weekend. :sunny:

1 Like
#14

Hi Everyone!

…More ideas on how this type of inline quotation marks ( « … ») can be produced in Kato? Have no idea why it’s not working for me. Throws me out of Kato into a Google window each time I want to use it. Mine is a desktop with Windows 10.

Thanks in advance!

2 Likes
#15

Hello @na2alia_m :blush:
I imagine @Manuel will have some valuable tips about this too :dizzy:

2 Likes
#16

Hi @na2alia_m!

What you describe sounds a lot like what I experienced when I was either (a) using the numbers on top of my qwerty keyboard (rather than the numpad) or (b) using the numpad, but it was deactivated.

Browsers have keyboard shortcuts that allow you to switch between tabs numbering them from left to right. A good way of testing if this is what’s going on is choosing a combination (say, Alt + 174), holding down Alt and typing the first number in the combination (1, in this case.) If you are taken to the first tab in your current session, then we know that this is the case :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#17

Thanks for your detailed replies, Manuel!

:slight_smile: — Having followed your advice, it is exactly what I get — a smiley! Not kidding: if I type in Alt + 1 I get a lovely inline smiley, for Goodness sake! Believe it or not! Lol. Very useful. But, no, in this case, I am not taken to a new browser window. So… what do I do with the numpad? Yes, I do use the numpad and have no idea what is wrong with it…

If I type in Alt + 174 I DO get transferred to a new window.

But the trick with a smiley is a good one. :hugs:

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