When you use the AppleScript Get command to get hyphenated words from a Word document, the hyphen symbol (-) is returned as a valid word.

The Get command is used to retrieve objects from a Word document. The command then builds a list of those objects. For instance, when used on a document containing the words "As Time Goes By," the AppleScript code "get every word of paragraph 1" will return the list "As", "Time", "Goes", "By."

When you use the Get command to retrieve words that are separated by hyphens, the hyphen symbol is included in the list of returned items just as if it were a valid word. For example, the AppleScript code "get every word of paragraph 1" will return the list "As", "-", "Time", "-", "Goes", "-", "By" when used on a document containing the text "As-Time-Goes-By".

Microsoft Word does not have a simple method for jumping to the end of a hyphenated word; therefore, the Apple Event code does not have a simple way of returning an entire hyphenated word.