Claude Text Cleaner

Soft hyphen guide · October 24, 2026

Does Claude Text Cleaner Remove Soft Hyphens?

Yes. The browser-only cleaner deletes U+00AD SOFT HYPHEN from pasted text without inserting a replacement. In a live test, in + U+00AD + visible became invisible: original length 10, clean length 9, one removed character, one changed category, and “Soft hyphen” 1. If you placed U+00AD to allow a word break, keep the original until you have checked the destination layout.

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Code-point labels make the change clear even where the original soft hyphen cannot be seen.

What changes when a soft hyphen is deleted?

Unicode's line-breaking annex describes U+00AD as an invisible format character that marks a preferred break within a word. Removing it removes that encoded break opportunity. The cleaner does not add a visible hyphen or choose a new line break. Other layout rules may still wrap the word.

A public HTML question about optional hyphenation asks how a long word can break with a hyphen only when needed. That is one reason to preserve an intentional U+00AD. An ordinary visible hyphen, U+002D in well-being, is a different code point and is outside this soft-hyphen rule.

Review before copying

  1. Save the original text before cleaning, particularly if its word wrapping matters.
  2. Paste a copy and compare the output with the “Soft hyphen” count. A positive count means matched code points were deleted; it does not identify their origin or a watermark.
  3. Test the cleaned word in its destination. If the optional break matters, restore it there or retain the original.

The local report counts code points and cannot predict every renderer's line breaks. See how to read removal counts and the separate em dash deletion example.