microsoft word formatting hidden symbols list

MICROSOFT WORD FORMATTING HIDDEN SYMBOLS LIST HOW TO

On the File tab, click the Options button: 2. To show or hide specific nonprintable symbols, do the following: 1.

MICROSOFT WORD FORMATTING HIDDEN SYMBOLS LIST HOW TO

If you want to know more about special hidden characters, how to use them effectively to keep maximum control over Word documents and how to avoid problems with the text formatting check out our Ninja courses. You can selectively show only spaces in the document, only Tabulation symbols, etc. Choose File | Options and under Display there are settings for displaying formatting marks.Ĭhanges made here will be default Word settings - from now new created documents will be shown with or without hidden characters, accordingly to options we have changed. This will show or hide the special characters.īut if you want to do this faster, use shortcut Ctrl+* (on the keyboard hit keys Ctrl+Shift+8).Īn other option is to change Word default settings. To show or to hide formatting marks hit the button with the paragraph symbol on it. We can also change some settings so that the hidden characters are visible in Word documents by default. To show them we can use keyboard shortcut or a menu button. Now, how to show the hidden characters if they are hidden? Because they are hidden by default.

and finally an anchor for the anchor of the clicked image. You can show or hide paragraph marks () or symbols and other nonprinting characters (such as tabs, spaces and soft returns) in your Microsoft Word.

The first character is formatting mark for optional hyphen,then the next are: Let's display the marks so that we can see some examples of them - and remember - they are really hidden, they do not appear on the paper when you print a document, they are only for our information about the layout of the document. So, what do the formatting marks look like, exactly? If you'de like to change something in the text, to add or to remove a paragraph you can do that easily, because you see, what you have to change - to add, to shift or to remove.įormatting characters in Word are marks for You can see arrows (for tabs), dots for spaces, an anchor for an object anchor and so on and you know exactly how the text is built for example where a paragraph starts and where it ends. They are used in Word to show the layout of a document. Invisible characters in Word are just formatting marks. Then check or uncheck the 'Hidden' checkbox under the Effects section. Select the text, right-click, and choose Font. And if you want to mark/unmark a selection of text as hidden, thats under the Font settings. How to show invisible characters in Microsoft Word In addition to showing/hiding formatting symbols, that will also show/hide hidden text. If we know, how to show them and how to use them, we can control document layout much better! Microsoft Word documents contain invisible characters (formatting marks).

Click the Show/Hide button ( Home > Paragraph).Microsoft Word - How to show invisible characters Summary.

You’re then in a better position to work out how to fix that gaping hole! How to show formatting marks in Word

But if you show formatting marks, you’ll at least be able to tell there’s some kind of formatting applied to the text. Unless you’re on top of all the formatting options Word offers, you may not realise what’s going on.

And you’re left with a gaping blank space at the bottom of your page! Because as soon as the extra text / paragraphs meet the bottom of the page, you’ll likely find that it all moves to the next page. However, it may become one if you then insert a large amount of text and/or a few more paragraphs. The new paragraph takes on the same Keep with next setting. So you place the cursor at the start of the paragraph, and insert the new paragraph there. Now, Keep with next is a great way, for example, to keep a paragraph connected to a numbered or bulleted list.īut what happens if you’re unaware that the paragraph has been formatted in this way? Well, you might decide to add a paragraph before the formatted paragraph. And that is where a paragraph has been formatted using Keep with next. Let me give you a scenario where hidden formatting could cause you endless grief. An example of how hidden formatting can become problematic …

Microsoft word formatting hidden symbols list