How to keep two or several words together in a Word document

Word 365
When you create a Word document, often you need to add some words that should be kept together even if Word wants to put them on different lines.

The most popular example is an abbreviation and a name such as:

  • An organization - Plexico LLC, W. H. Allen & Co.
  • The address - N Rengstorff Ave, N Shoreline Blvd.
  • The person - Dr. S. Hawking, prof. Smith.

It will be correct to see these words always on the same line.

When you type the text, usually you separate words (sentences or even syllables in some languages) by pressing the Space key (also known as Spacebar):

Several words in Word 2016

To keep words together, you can use a Nonbreaking space (also called non-breaking space, no-break space, non-breakable space (NBSP), hard space, or fixed space):

Words with nonbreaking spaces in Word 2016

To add the nonbreaking space to your document, do one of the following:

  • On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click on the Symbol drop-down list and then choose More Symbols...:
    More Symbols in Word 2016

    In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, choose the Nonbreaking Space:

    Nonbreaking Space in Word 2016

    After choosing the symbol, press the Insert button and close the Symbol dialog box.

  • Or simply press Ctrl+Shift+Space.

If you toggle on showing of non-printable symbols, you will see a regular space as a little dot between words ˙, and a nonbreaking space as a degree symbol between words °:

Several words with nonbreaking spaces in Word 2016

Note: In this mode you can see spaces or other special symbols (see How to show/hide nonprintable symbols in a Word document), but they are still non-printable!

See also this tip in French: Comment garder deux ou plusieurs mots ensemble dans un document Word.

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