Can I prevent hyphenation in a block of text?

[AlexBell]

I'm working on an epub ebook which in each of its 18 books and 208 chapters has a 'preface' of several words or a few sentences. The text of the 'preface' is centered, often using several lines, and quite often the last word on a line breaks, and is hyphenated. I think this looks awful.

Is there a way to prevent all of the words in the centered text from breaking? A word at the end of a line which would otherwise break will then drop to the next line.

I know how to prevent a single word from breaking and hyphenating. But I really don't want to have to apply this markup to all or most of the words in each of the 226 'prefaces'.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I'm working on an epub ebook which in each of its 18 books and 208 chapters has a 'preface' of several words or a few sentences. The text of the 'preface' is centered, often using several lines, and quite often the last word on a line breaks, and is hyphenated. I think this looks awful.

Is there a way to prevent all of the words in the centered text from breaking? A word at the end of a line which would otherwise break will then drop to the next line.

I know how to prevent a single word from breaking and hyphenating. But I really don't want to have to apply this markup to all or most of the words in each of the 226 'prefaces'.

In your .css file create the following class:

.no_hyphens {
    adobe-hyphenate: none;
    hyphenate: none;
    hyphens: none;
    -epub-hyphens: none;
    -moz-hyphens: none;
    -webkit-hyphens: none;
}

And in your .xhtml file you have two ways of working:

1) Enclose the text to be not hyphened in a div tag with the class previously defined; i.e:

<div class="no_hyphens">
  <p>blah, blah, blah...</p>

  <p>blah, blah, blah...</p>

  <p>blah, blah, blah...</p>
</div>

2) If you want to apply the style to only a tag (i.e. h1, h2, h3..., p, etc.) then give the style to that tag; i.e;

if you have:

<h2 class="title">This is my own title</h2>

then after applying the new style you'll have:

<h2 class="title no_hyphens">This is my own title</h2>

Or if you have:

<p class="center">The text of my preface here....</p>

then after applying the new style you'll have:

<p class="center no_hyphens">The text of my preface here....</p>

Regards
Rubén

[AlexBell]

Thanks so much, Rubén. That's most helpful.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks so much, Rubén. That's most helpful.

You are welcome Alex

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I'm working on an epub ebook which in each of its 18 books and 208 chapters has a 'preface' of several words or a few sentences. The text of the 'preface' is centered, often using several lines, and quite often the last word on a line breaks, and is hyphenated. I think this looks awful.

Is there a way to prevent all of the words in the centered text from breaking? A word at the end of a line which would otherwise break will then drop to the next line.

I know how to prevent a single word from breaking and hyphenating. But I really don't want to have to apply this markup to all or most of the words in each of the 226 'prefaces'.

However, if the last word fully splits off to the next line, you could end up with gaps depending on the text size and the length of the word. excessive gaps and also look awful. Much more so then a hyphen.

[GrannyGrump]

@JSWolf -- I think that only happens if you are using text-align: justify.
Centered text shouldn't be changing spacing between words.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

@JSWolf -- I think that only happens if you are using text-align: justify.
Centered text shouldn't be changing spacing between words.

I tested centered text with ADE 2.0.1 I do get hyphenations but the spaces between the words does look the same.

[AlexBell]

Yes, I am using centered text for the 'preface' to the books and chapters. I don't see any problems at all. Rubén's solution works very well indeed, though I have made very minor changes to give me a space on either side and below the 'preface' text.