Before a piece goes out, it helps to see at a glance how many hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes it contains, so you can spot inconsistent or incorrect usage.
Hyphen vs Dash counts each kind of mark in your text and can apply the standard conversions when you are ready.
How to use Hyphen vs Dash
- Paste the text you want to inspect for dash usage.
- Read the cards that count hyphens, en dashes, em dashes, and compound hyphens in your input.
- Copy the converted text once you have checked the suggested changes.
Use cases
- Proofreading an article for inconsistent dash usage.
- Cleaning copied manuscripts where dash marks are mixed.
- Checking a plain-text export before fixing its dashes.
Good to know
Hyphen vs Dash shows a small dashboard counting the hyphens, en dashes, em dashes, and compound-word hyphens it finds in your input, so you can judge usage before changing anything. The output panel still applies the standard conversions, ranges to en dashes and double hyphens to em dashes, while leaving compound words and email-like tokens alone. Use the counts to decide whether a change is needed.
Frequently asked questions
When should a hyphen be left in place?
Keep a hyphen when it joins a compound word, such as well-known or mother-in-law; those are counted as compound hyphens, not errors.
What do the count cards show?
They show how many hyphens, en dashes, em dashes, and compound-word hyphens are present in the text you pasted.
Why are compound-word hyphens not converted?
Because they are correct as hyphens; only number ranges and sentence breaks are converted, so compound words and email-like tokens are left alone.