I've just finished (well, about an hour ago!) editing some proofs for a magazine. The later it got, the more stymied I felt by a certain conundrum: how and when to hyphenate.

The one I got all hung up on was this:

see the exhibits in the third floor gallery.

(something like that) Well, I wound up hyphenating "third" with "floor" because the two words together describe "gallery." But that doesn't always hold true....

Usually I use my instincts when hyphenating, but I was known as the Hyphenation Queen when I used to work at a local newspaper - from which I gathered that no one else hyphenates quite like yours truly, or perhaps not quite as much as.... Does anyone know a rule for hyphenation? one of those handy, easily-remembered rules? is there such a thing?

and am I allowed to post a question about hyphenating in Q&A About Words or should I have done this somewheres else?