[OS X TeX] Hyphenation

[Jonathan Kew]

On 13 Mar 2007, at 4:47 pm, Lindsay Stirton wrote:

> The one thing I can't figure out is hyphenation. I understand that  
> (as long
> as I am writing in English) TeX should automatically hyphenate--no  
> need to
> use \usepackage[english]{babel} or any such command in the header.  
> All the
> sources I consult speak about what a great hyphenation algorithm  
> TeX has.
> But the only way I seem to be able to do hyphenation is manually  
> (with /- ).

Are you very sure automatic hyphenation isn't working? It may just be  
that TeX is able to find good line-breaks for your text without  
resorting to hyphenation, in which case it won't bother.

One way you could test this is to deliberately use lots of long  
words, along with narrower-than-usual pages; then you're more likely  
to see hyphens being inserted.

Another option is to (temporarily) add the declarations

   \pretolerance = -1
   \hyphenpenalty = -100

at the beginning of your document; this will encourage TeX to  
hyphenate *much* more frequently than usual. (The normal behavior is  
to try and set the text without hyphenation if possible.)

If you still don't see any automatic hyphenation under these  
conditions, then I'd guess something is wrong with the configuration;  
a short example document, along with the log file from running it,  
would help in diagnosis.

HTH .... JK


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