In principle, an em dash is supposed to be used where most people use hyphens. That's why Word/LaTeX make it easy to use:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/em-dash-en-dash-how-...

On macOS and Windows there are keyboard shortcuts for en/em dashes, but I also prefer the Compose key.

MacOS makes it simple: option + - for en-dash, option + shift + - for em-dash.

I would not call keyboard shortcuts "simple". Having a key on the keyboard is simple, having to memorize shortcuts is not.

Simple in that many of them are relatively easy to remember after learning. ¢ for example is option+4—where the dollar sign is.

A keyboard with every possible character would have its own simplicity challenges.

I see. What other combos does it support?

There are lots: https://mackeeper.com/blog/special-characters-mac-keyboard/#...

Yeah, looks like they developed separately from Compose combos.

Option is used extensively for non-Ascii characters, a comprehensive list would be quite long.

A few of the easier to remember:

option + 0 for degrees º

option + u for to place an umlaut over the next typed character (when it's a valid combination, anyway) ëüä

option + c for cedilla ç

Interesting. Kind of reinventing Compose key combos. I wonder why they didn't just reuse Compose ones from FreeBSD.

This dates back to the beginning of the Mac, so it's almost 10 years older than FreeBSD. (I'm unfamiliar with other UNIX compose key tooling that may have predated it.)

I use µ for microns or micrometers µm. Option + m.

Also if you need ad-hoc bullets, just reach for option + 8.

• Like this.

The difficulty in accessing symbols like these is one of my (I'm sure correctable) hang-ups when using Linux — Arch, btw.

Why stop at emdash? You should be able to type as long a dash as you want just by holding the - key down longer.