A discretionary break means, “it’s OK to insert a line break at this point, but if you do, do not display a hyphen.” It’s useful in long file names and path names, where the hyphen would create ambiguity: is it actually part of the name or not?
Unfortunately Word does not have a “discretionary break” character.
I just figured out a way to get almost the same result: use a discretionary hyphen and set its color to match the background color. If Word uses the line break it displays the hyphen, but since it matches the background color, it is invisible.
This is equivalent to a true discretionary break except in two cases. First, if the text is justified, the invisible hyphen results in a short line. Second, if there is no room for a hyphen after the break point, a true discretionary break would create a break anyway, but an invisible hyphen won’t.
BTW, I tried making the hyphen hidden before I changed its color, but that didn’t work (Word did not break at all).
