I'm having an issue with a document I've created. The text should be fully left and right justified, and for the most part it is. However, a couple times in the document, the text extends beyond the right margin. How do I tell LaTeX (or more specifically, XeLaTeX) that this is not okay?
I can reproduce your example (with a different font, but it's irrelevant):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[textwidth=7.6in]{geometry}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
A review of relevant literature indicates that researchers are evaluating
the four factors identified previously using experiment-based empirical
trials (Nunamaker et al.\ 2011). While these efforts yield critical insights,
experiment participants tasked with deceiving and avoiding detection likely
have no knowledge of the system that they are encountering. Consequently,
these experiments often lack elements of ecological validity as the adoption
and use of such a system publicly would mean that potential interviewees
would possess knowledge concerning its capabilities. Interviewees with
knowledge of the system can then attempt to avoid detection by employing
strategic behaviors designed to mitigate specific technologies and sensors
used by the system; these behaviors are often referred to as
countermeasures.
\end{document}
TeX doesn't hyphenate words that have a hyphen in them except at the hyphen itself (compound words). While this seems bad, it is in fact good: splitting a composed word require judgment for avoiding ambiguities. The discretionary hyphen \- command can help.
It's easier to wait till the document is in its final form for the text and add discretionary hyphens \- where needed. With a wide line length, there should be only a few cases that need attention. In that case I would try with
experi-ment-based
but avoiding a discretionary hyphen after ex.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[textwidth=7.6in]{geometry}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
A review of relevant literature indicates that researchers are evaluating
the four factors identified previously using experi\-ment-based empirical
trials (Nunamaker et al.\ 2011). While these efforts yield critical insights,
experiment participants tasked with deceiving and avoiding detection likely
have no knowledge of the system that they are encountering. Consequently,
these experiments often lack elements of ecological validity as the adoption
and use of such a system publicly would mean that potential interviewees
would possess knowledge concerning its capabilities. Interviewees with
knowledge of the system can then attempt to avoid detection by employing
strategic behaviors designed to mitigate specific technologies and sensors
used by the system; these behaviors are often referred to as
countermeasures.
\end{document}
There are several ways. The easiest is to place
\showhyphens{experiment}
at the bottom of the document, just before \end{document}; then you'll find this in the .log file:
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
[] \OT1/ppl/m/n/10 ex-per-i-ment
The Underfull \hbox message is due to how the \showhyphens command works (it purposely builds an underfull box that will be shown with the possible hyphens). So we know that in American English the hyphenation points should be
ex-per-i-ment
The hyphenation algorithm is not infallible, though, so maybe looking in a dictionary can be better in case of doubt. The Oxford dictionary for AmEn gives indeed ex|per|i|ment
Alternatively, type somewhere in your document (the end is good)
\parbox{0pt}{\hspace{0pt}experiment}
and you'll get
because TeX will do its best in order to avoid overfull boxes, but it won't be able to fit words in 0pt.
There are automatic solutions, but I wouldn't recommend them. See, for instance, cfr's answer here. In English the problem is quite rare. Look at the end if you want a better remedy.
Another possibility is to use a command for compound words, say
\newcommand{\comp}{\hspace{0pt}\nolinebreak-\hspace{0pt}}
Then typing
experiment\comp based
you'd get
Instead of \comp you might want to use babel shorthands; see babel: Adding ngerman' s language shorthands to english as the main document language but the result would not be completely under control. For instance, with experiment-related you might get
experiment-re-
lated
that is even worse than the overfull box.
Load the microtype package, that does wonders; for instance, the same document as before
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[textwidth=7.6in]{geometry}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
A review of relevant literature indicates that researchers are evaluating
the four factors identified previously using experiment-based empirical
trials (Nunamaker et al.\ 2011). While these efforts yield critical insights,
experiment participants tasked with deceiving and avoiding detection likely
have no knowledge of the system that they are encountering. Consequently,
these experiments often lack elements of ecological validity as the adoption
and use of such a system publicly would mean that potential interviewees
would possess knowledge concerning its capabilities. Interviewees with
knowledge of the system can then attempt to avoid detection by employing
strategic behaviors designed to mitigate specific technologies and sensors
used by the system; these behaviors are often referred to as
countermeasures.
\end{document}
will give
without any intervention. Loading microtype will surely minimize manual corrections during the final revision.
Final advice: don't worry about these problems until the document is in its final form. A change in wording will most probably destroy the work done about overfull boxes and, according to Murphy's law, create other ones.
For me, the solution was to call \sloppy in the preamble. I am far from a LaTeX pro and I can't explain why this works.
ex\-peri\-ment-based. – Werner May 02 '14 at 20:06\-where needed. With a wide line length, there should be only a few cases that need attention. In that case I would try withexperi\-ment-based, avoiding a discretionary hyphen afterex. – egreg May 02 '14 at 20:16\hyphenation. See this answer. – Werner May 02 '14 at 20:17\hyphenationfor compound words. – egreg May 02 '14 at 20:21