How do I insert a thin space in a Word document?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AngStones
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A

AngStones

I work on documents where scientific units are used, and need to know how to
insert a 'thin space' between numbers and units, as required by the
International System of Units. Is this possible in Word?
 
Yes, sort of. Most fonts don't include this "character," but you can find it
at U2009 (along with many other specialized spaces) in Arial Unicode MS. The
drawback to this is that the font metrics of Arial may be quite different
from whatever you're using as a body font. What you might try is to insert a
U2009 thin space from Arial Unicode MS into some text formatted in the same
size of Arial to get a visual impression of what size space it is, then
approximate this in the Default Paragraph Font by condensing an ordinary
space (or nonbreaking space if you are justifying the text, since
nonbreaking spaces don't expand) using Format | Font | Character Spacing:
Condensed.
 
I work on documents where scientific units are used, and need to know how to
insert a 'thin space' between numbers and units, as required by the
International System of Units. Is this possible in Word?
Click to expand...

Click Insert > Symbol (in Word 2007, Insert > Symbol > More Symbols). In the
dialog, click the Special Characters tab. It offers a 1/4 em space (probably
what you want), an en space, and an em space.

If that doesn't do what you want, you can alter the spacing with greater
precision this way:

- Type an ordinary space between the number and unit.
- Select the space character.
- Right-click, select Font, and click the Character Spacing tab.
- Set the Spacing box to Condensed, and enter a measurement in points by which
to reduce the width of the space. You can enter an integer or a number with one
or two decimal places.

Unlike the special spaces from the symbol dialog, this method takes no account
of the font size; the reduction is an absolute value in points.
 
Unlike "condensing," though, "scaling" is proportional to the font size and
could be usefully used for spaces (which would presumably not experience
distortion).
 
How about this thin-space shortcut: select the space, go to Font, and select a smaller font size (1-5 seems to work). It may not be the perfect solution but it increases usability. Justification remains a problem, however, so perhaps this tip can be combined with making it a nonbreaking space (control-shift-space).
 
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How about this thin-space shortcut: select the space, go to Font, and select font size 1. It may not be the perfect solution but it increases usability. Justification remains a problem, however, so perhaps this tip can be combined with making it a nonbreaking space. SEE EDITED POST ABOVE
 
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