On-line Hyphenator

Our On-line Hyphenator demonstrates the technology which we developed for preparation of web pages with dynamic hyphenation.

What is it good for?

To see what are the benefits, open the following sample documents in either in Opera 7.20 or higher, or in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 or 6, and then try resizing the browser window:

• Podlubny, I.: “Webové stránky a webové štandardy”, HTML verzia clanku uverejneného v PC REVUE, č. 2, 2003, ss. 80–82. (”Web Pages and Web Standards”, on-line verzion of the article in Slovak published in PC REVUE, no. 2, 2003, pp. 80–82.)
• Podlubny, I., Kassayová, K.: “Práca s veľmi rozsiahlymi dokumentmi v programe MS Word”. (Working with very long documents in Microsoft Word).

Observe that the content accommodates to the window width, and the words at the ends of lines are dynamically hyphenated while you are resizing the window. This allows pretty justified text, newspaper-like columns, etc., enhancing therefore our web experience.

How does it work?

To create a web page with dynamic hyphenation, the so-called soft hyphen is inserted everywhere where words can be hyphenated if it is necessary. Soft hyphen (­) is a part of web standards starting with HTML 4.

Level of support in current browsers and search engines

HTML 4.01 specification reads:

“Those browsers that interpret soft hyphens must observe the following semantics: If a line is broken at a soft hyphen, a hyphen character must be displayed at the end of the first line. If a line is not broken at a soft hyphen, the user agent must not display a hyphen character. For operations such as searching and sorting, the soft hyphen should always be ignored.”

However, current browsers and search engines still have problems with proper rendering of soft hyphens:

• Currently, only Opera 7.20 and higher, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, 5.5, and 6 render soft hyphens properly in accordance with this specification.
• All other current browsers, including Opera up to version 7.11, Netscape, and Mozilla, simply ignore soft hyphens. This is still acceptable.
• Old browsers always show soft hyphen. If you saw all words in my sample documents hyphenated, it is time to upgrade your browser.
• Search engines still are not capable of indexing web pages with soft-hyphenated words; soft-hyphenation is now something like a kind of stealth technology.

Try it!

Try our On-line Hyphenator yourself. (Apologies: this feature is currently unavailable, server is in transition to another physical location.)