Replace all spaces with hyphens

Question

It is good practice for legal documents to have hyphens instead of spaces so nobody can add anything to a contract after signing it.

E.g.

------------------------------------------
------------Contract----------------------
------------------------------------------
The-parties-of-this-contract-agree-to-----
lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet----------------
------------------------------------------

Could this be possible to achieve in LaTeX without the verbatim package?

Answer 1

This is probably incompatible with everything, but....

\documentclass{article}



\def\space{\leavevmode\leaders\hrule\hskip 0.5em plus .2em minus .2em\kern0pt }
{\obeyspaces\global\let =\space}
\def\center{%
\parindent0pt %
\everypar{\hrulefill}%
\def\par{\hrulefill\endgraf}%
\obeylines\obeyspaces
}
\def\endcenter{\par}

\def\flushleft{%
\parindent0pt %
\def\par{\hrulefill\endgraf}%
\obeylines\obeyspaces
}
\def\endflushleft{\par}



\begin{document}


\begin{center}
Contract
\end{center}
\begin{flushleft}
The parties of this contract agree to     
lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
\end{flushleft}                                         

\end{document}

Answer 2

Here's an option that uses the SOUL package. It seems to work reasonably well for basic input. Since SOUL commands can't be nested, it (to my knowledge) requires a separate macro for centering (\midl) and for struck spaces (\strikespace). Most font commands should be ok with this, but if you run into a macro that breaks things, you could try to "register" it with soul as I've done for the \fbox command: see the SOUL documentation for further details as well as for other possible sticking points. As always, the implementation could likely be improved and yes, this is also probably incompatible with almost everything.

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{soul}

\parindent0pt
\soulregister{\fbox}{1}
\makeatletter

\DeclareRobustCommand*\strikespaceaux{
\SOUL@ulsetup
\SOUL@stpreamble
\def\SOUL@everyspace##1{%
  ##1%
  \SOUL@ulleaders
  \hskip\spaceskip
  \null
}
\def\SOUL@everysyllable{%
  \the\SOUL@syllable
  \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
}
\def\SOUL@postamble{%
    \fillit
}
\SOUL@
}

\DeclareRobustCommand*\midlaux{
\def\SOUL@preamble{%
    \dimen@\SOUL@ulthickness
    \dimen@i=-.5ex
    \advance\dimen@i-.5\dimen@
    \edef\SOUL@uldepth{\the\dimen@i}%
        \let\SOUL@ulcolor\SOUL@stcolor
        \SOUL@uldp=\SOUL@uldepth
    \SOUL@ulht=-\SOUL@uldp
    \advance\SOUL@uldp\SOUL@ulthickness
    \spaceskip\SOUL@spaceskip
        \noindent\fillit}
\def\SOUL@everyspace##1{%
  ##1%
  \SOUL@ulleaders
  \hskip\spaceskip
  \null
}
\def\SOUL@everysyllable{%
  \the\SOUL@syllable
  \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
}
\def\SOUL@postamble{%
    \fillit
}
\SOUL@
}

\def\fillit{\noindent\leaders\hrule\@depth\SOUL@uldp\@height\SOUL@ulht\hfill\kern\z@}

\makeatother

\ExplSyntaxOn

\NewDocumentCommand {\strikespace}
    {>{ \SplitList {\par}} +m}
    {\tl_map_inline:nn {#1} {\strikespaceaux{##1}\par}}

\NewDocumentCommand{\midl}
    {>{ \SplitList {\par}} +m}
    {\tl_map_inline:nn {#1} {\midlaux{##1}\par}}

\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}
\midl{\fbox{\large A title}}
\midl{\textbf{ Below you will find two paragraphs}\par \textbf{of lorem ipsum}\par}

\strikespace{
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras interdum, massa sit amet convallis vehicula, diam quam commodo lorem, placerat vehicula nulla lacus eu quam. Nunc et nulla libero, in bibendum felis. Nulla rutrum hendrerit nulla ac fringilla. In ultrices rutrum leo, non gravida elit porttitor eu. Quisque suscipit sapien a nunc tristique at blandit eros sagittis. Suspendisse potenti. Nulla enim nisi, pellentesque a suscipit nec, condimentum vel lacus. Mauris a elementum justo. Integer fermentum tempor ligula, ut ullamcorper nunc pretium ac.

Sed tempus mattis elit, nec faucibus nisl sagittis id. Nulla at neque libero. Donec fringilla, felis nec commodo porta, nibh quam mollis augue, et interdum lectus lectus ut ipsum. Donec ac tortor velit, quis mollis arcu. In dapibus laoreet accumsan. Nullam sed purus orci, ac porttitor velit. Pellentesque auctor nisl at odio pharetra mattis. Vestibulum purus ante, lacinia sit amet aliquet eleifend, blandit eget risus. Phasellus et erat augue, a commodo risus. Vestibulum semper enim in neque semper malesuada ut a magna. Praesent tellus odio, blandit ut interdum eu, tincidunt ac leo.
}

\end{document}