How to create em dash shortcut using AutoHotKey on Windows

I'm not sure about you, but I tend to use em dashes — a lot.

(If you don't know what an em dash is, you can read more about this punctuation mark here http://grammarist.com/grammar/emdash)

I just changed from an Apple MacBook to a Microsoft Surface 3, and there is no ease of keystroke to simply type an em dash.

But I finally found a work around! If anyone is keen, this is where i found it http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/w...

The instructions as quoted:

AutoHotKey is the simple solution to this problem. It's a free app that lets you set keystroke combinations to perform any action in any application, including browsers. I was able to map en and em dashes to alt-hyphen and shift-alt-hyphen, respectively. Works flawlessly — every time. (See what I did there?)

You'll see some discussion about this not working with Windows 10, but that's old discussion. It's working for me on my Surface Pro 4 just dandily as of January 21, 2016.

Here's what you do:

1. Download and run AutoHotKey (autohotkey.com)

2. Right-click on your desktop, and choose New > AutoHotKey Script. Name the script with a .ahk at the end.

3. Right-click the script, and select Edit Script.

4. Paste this code in that script below the existing text:

!-::–
return
+!-::—
return

5. Save, close and double-click the script to run it. Test it out in some random program. You'll see it now works.

6. Make a shortcut of the script, and move it to your Startup Items folder. (Windows-R, then type "shell:startup" to open the Startup folder.) Drag your shortcut into it.

I did not have to do step 6, and I could already use the shift-alt-hyphen shortcut with ease, as mapped by AutoHotKey with the given instructions above!

Anyone else who is a punctuation/grammar nazi like me will really appreciate this new functionality.

Let me know if anyone on here has been struggling with the same issue as I — since we have to produce so much content, i.e., we have to type alot, for our websites, for rankings, for traffic, etc etc...