Word 2003: Autocorrect hyphen to dash?

Despite Folowing The Auto-Correct Drop-Down and All Other 'HELP' Instructions, I Have Been UNABLE TO CHANGE HYPHENS TO DASHES! Is There Anyone Who Can Tell Me How To Do This When All Other Fixes Are Completely Ineffective?

 

Have you tried using Find-Replace instead of autocorrect?

Also, have you tried to use multiple characters instead of just the hyphen-dash?

 

Hi Paul and welcome on board.

The same problem bugged me for a long time until I noticed that it does work when I type two consecutive hyphens and then continue by starting to type the next word. The two hyphens remain just that (--) until I've typed the following [space] and then started the subsequent word, at which point I can watch them turning into a dash.

I also noticed that if I go back into a text to edit it and want to insert a dash, it won't "take" until I've typed the subsequent [space] and at least a coupla letters, i.e., as above. I then need to clear the duplicate following word with Ctrl-Del.

Hope that helps.