Remove em dashes from text
Replace the punctuation mark AI writers love, and humans rarely type, with a comma, a hyphen or nothing at all. The rest of your text is untouched.
The em dash is a perfectly good mark, but a text full of them reads oddly and some style guides ban them. This page finds every em dash and en dash and replaces it with whatever you choose: a comma with a space, a hyphen, a spaced hyphen, or removal with the surrounding spacing tidied. Only the dashes switch is on, so markdown and quotes are left alone unless you enable them.
How to remove em dashes from text
- Paste the text. The number of em and en dashes appears immediately.
- Choose the replacement. Comma, hyphen, spaced hyphen or nothing.
- Clean and copy. Spacing around each replacement is fixed automatically. "Show what changed" highlights every one.
Why use myowntext for this
Nothing is uploaded
Text is processed by your browser. There is no server, so contracts, cover letters and private notes never travel anywhere.
Instant, even offline
Every result appears as you type. Once a page has loaded it keeps working without a connection.
Shows its work
Counts, highlights and reports tell you exactly what was found and what changed. Nothing is hidden behind a spinner.
No account, no limits
Free with no sign-up, no word cap, no ads and no nag to upgrade.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between an em dash and an en dash?
The em dash (—) is the long one used for asides. The en dash (–) is shorter and used for ranges such as 2020–2024. Both are replaced; ranges get a plain hyphen so 10–20 becomes 10-20.
Can I turn em dashes into commas automatically?
Yes. The comma option inserts a comma and a space, which reads naturally in most sentences. Read the result once; a few sentences may prefer a full stop.
Can I keep the bold and headings?
Yes. "Copy with formatting" replaces the dashes and puts the text on the clipboard with its markdown turned into real formatting for Word, Gmail or Docs.