Em Dash Replacer

The Em Dash Replacer is a simple editing utility that lets you convert all em dashes (—) in your text to either standard hyphen-minus dashes or to commas. It is designed for writers who paste content from multiple sources and end up with inconsistent punctuation. By normalizing long dashes, you can keep your documents clean and uniform without painstaking manual edits.

When you choose the comma option, the tool applies smart spacing so you never end up with duplicate spaces or awkward formatting. Any em dash surrounded by spaces will be replaced with a single comma followed by a space. Dashes jammed between words are separated correctly so the text reads naturally. The hyphen option performs a straight character swap, useful for plain text formats that do not support em dashes.

Because all processing happens directly in your browser, none of your text is uploaded or stored. This makes the Em Dash Replacer ideal for cleaning drafts, private notes or any sensitive material. Whether you are fixing scraped articles, tidying up AI generated content or standardizing an email, the results appear instantly in the output field ready to copy.

How the Tool Works

The logic is intentionally lightweight. First, the script scans your input for the em dash character. Depending on your selected mode, each instance is swapped for either a dash or a comma. When commas are used, extra whitespace before and after is trimmed, then a single space is inserted after the comma. Finally, the tool collapses any leftover double spaces so the final text is neat and readable.

Smart Spacing Logic

Many copy-and-paste situations produce inconsistent spacing around long dashes. Our replacer normalizes this by ensuring that every comma has exactly one trailing space and no leading spaces. If you already have a space before the dash, it remains untouched. This approach keeps sentences flowing smoothly regardless of how the original dash was positioned.

Common Use Cases

• Editing blog posts copied from Word or Google Docs
• Cleaning scraped web pages for plain text archives
• Standardizing transcripts or subtitles that mix punctuation styles
• Preparing AI generated text for publication or analysis