Cannot insert discretionary hyphens

Question

I cannot insert discretionary hyphens. When I type in the appropriate command or select it from the Type menu, nothing happens. The option appears grayed out. What is causing this?

Barb Binder · Accepted Answer

By the way—the command isn't grayed out in your screen shot—it appears in black. The shortcuts appear in gray on macOS. When a command is grayed out, the shortcuts don't appear.  ~Barb

Joel Cherney · Answer

It's possible that something is happening that you're not seeing. I'd suggest that you turn on Type -> Show Hidden Characters, so you can see if a discretionary hyphen is actually being inserted. Because, since it's discretionary, it won't show up unless the word breaks at the spot where you inserted the discretionary hyphen. It'll only break there if there's good reason, as this little GIF demonstrates:

See? I inserted the discretionary hyphen, which was invisible until I made that word long enough to trigger hyphenation according to the current settings in the Justification panel and the Hyphenation panel. I think that's what is happening to you, but there's no way for us to know for sure, unless you turn HIdden Characters on and see for yourself.

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