Cannot copy soft hypens in line

Elementor ver 1.8.0
I had hoped that inline editing would greatly simplify my task of adding soft hyphens to justified paragraphs. It would avoid having to go back and forth between the widget editor and viewing inline, and switching between editor Visual and Text modes.
Alas, this is not the case. It is not possible to copy inline, and hence to paste inline, a soft hyphen.