Random hyphens appear when copy/pasting from Word.

[sarahisaghost]

I've been having this issue with unwanted hyphens for at least a couple years.

They appear when copy/pasting from Word, but not every time or even half the time.

They appear even when hyphenation is turned off in InDesign.

They appear where a hyphen would properly occur if the word were split.

They don't correspond to any breaks in the Word document.

If I paste text and the hyphens appear, I have to re-copy and re-paste the same text and to get rid of the hyphens.

[BobLevine]

Don't use copy/paste...use file>place. If there's that much in the file you don't need, then place it into a different InDesign file.

One more thing...do not use fake Word files saved from other applications such as Google Docs.

[Willi Adelberger]

Before you use Word texts in InDesign, turn off auto hyphenation and remove all manual hyphenation. 

[Philippe_Lanthier]

I’ve been struggling with this problem for many years. I’ve been trying different solutions, like turning off hyphenation in Word. But the problem always came back somehow. Randomly. Annoyingly.

I think I might have found a solution. I even have been able to avoid the problem when using my solution and to get the hyphenation problem again, when not using my solution.

So, what seems to work is that after copying from Word, I just make sur that the text remains unchanged in Word until my text is pasted in the target application (InDesign, Notepad…).

Then, after pasting the text, I might delete if from the Word file. So, I don’t use Cut/paste anymore. Just Copy/paste.

Maybe I’m just making myself believe that my problem is solved. (I hope not: it REALLY annoying…)

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...]

Then, after pasting the text, I might delete if from the Word file. So, I don’t use Cut/paste anymore. Just Copy/paste.

Maybe I’m just making myself believe that my problem is solved. (I hope not: it REALLY annoying…)

By @Philippe_Lanthier

After you Cut / Copy contents from WORD - or any other application - there is nothing that would link it back to this application - you can even close this application and it will remain in the Clipboard.

But in case of WORD - if you have Cut/Copied a lot of text, you will have to confirm that Clipboard contents should not be deleted:

Maybe try saving your document as RTF? Maybe this will help?

[Eugene Tyson]

If it's a .docx - then save it as a .doc file first

Then File>Place it in InDesign

Or copy and paste at your peril. 

Hypenation can sometimes be discretionary hyphens too - so they only appear when it's required to break a word over a line and a predetermined space.

https://creativepro.com/tip-of-the-week-breaking-words-with-discretionary-hyphens/#:~:text=Now%2C%20....

[Arthur1674]

This is a completely new development for us.

We've been using InDesign since switching from Quark in the CS days if I remember correctly.

Started a few weeks ago.  Only thing that changed has been windows updates and Abobe updates.  The machines that the documents come from vary, but there is one that we don't see any issues with.  We have always copy/pasted the word information from the preview pane with no issues before this.

It would be great if things like copy/paste worked and a random/cryptic feature is delayed for stability sake.

[Arthur1674]

Looks like I can't update my post, but this has to be a Microsoft issue.  I remeber testing a few weeks ago in the Christmas chaos.  Copy/Paste into a notepad document does the exact same thing in the exact same word, so the issue exists entirely outside of InDesign albeit on a machine with InDesign installed.  I will have to test on another machine that the source came from.

[Eugene Tyson]

The hyphen wouldn't come in if it's not there, it has to be a discretionary hyphen within the text itself. 

Can you show us screenshots of the Word Document with the hidden characters turned on.

And also the InDeisgn document showing the hidden characters.

Thanks