Activate hyphenation in Word - so it'll work

Microsoft has disabled hyphenation by default since Word 2007. If you want to activate the hyphenation, this is done quickly, although Microsoft has somewhat hidden the feature in Office. We explain where you can find the option.

Word: Activate hyphenation in four steps

1. First call up the "Layout" tab.
2. In the ribbon, go to the "Page Setup" area.
3. There, click on the "Hyphenation" option.
4. Activate hyphenation in the pull-down menu by selecting "Automatic". You can also set some hyphenation options - for example, the hyphenation zone and the successive hyphens.

Word for Mac: turn on hyphenation

1. On Word for Mac, click on "Layout" in the top left corner and then on the "Text layout" tab on "Hyphenation".
2. Check "Automatic hyphenation" and confirm with "OK".

In the next article, we summarized how you can then control the hyphenation in a targeted manner. There you will find all useful options and settings for hyphenation in Word.