If you’ve ever created a complex Word document, you’ve probably run into such annoying issues where it seems like you just can’t align a bullet or paragraph of text correctly, or some text keeps breaking off on another page when you need it. be on the same page.
To fix these types of problems, you sometimes have to manually edit the formatting of the document. In Word, document text is kept separate from formatting. This is good because it makes it easier to edit formatting without losing text.
In this article, I will show you how to display formatting marks in Word documents. These formatting marks include tabs, hyphens, spaces, paragraph marks, hidden text, page breaks, and more. I’ll also talk about another Word feature called Show Formatting, which allows you to see all formatting applied to any selected text.
Show formatting marks
There are two ways to show formatting or paragraph marks in Word, either by using the button on the paragraph ribbon, or by going to Word – Options. The latter method will display formatting marks at all times for all documents. Using the button, you can toggle the display of labels, and this only affects the currently open documents.
To view paragraph marks in Word, click the Home tab on the ribbon, and then click a paragraph mark in the Paragraph section.
As an example, I have text in Word with basic formatting:
Now, if I click the button above, I immediately see all the formatting marks in the document.
Lines with an arrow pointing to the right indicate tabs, and individual dots indicate spaces. Hidden text is underlined with a dashed line and a page break appears at the bottom. If you want to display any particular formatting mark at all times, you can do so by clicking File and then Options.
Now click “Show” in the menu on the left and you will see the “Always show these formatting marks on screen” section.
At the bottom of the list, you can also choose to display all the formatting marks if you like. Now let’s talk about the formatting options in Word.
Detect coordination
In addition to viewing paragraphs and formatting marks in a Word document, it is sometimes helpful to see what formatting has been applied to text. This is similar to HTML and CSS if you are familiar with these web protocols.
To display the formatting in Word, just press SHIFT + F1 and a dialog box appears, docked to the right side of the screen.
Now, just click anywhere in the document or select text and you can see all the formatting applied, including font, language, effects, etc. It will also tell you about the formatting applied to the paragraph and section. This is really useful if you need to know exactly what formatting was used to give a particular look to the text.
It’s also worth noting that the blue links in the dialog are interactive. Let’s say you want to change the font, just press FONT and the Font dialog will open.
The same goes for effects, alignment, padding, spacing, margins, and more. This is another great way to edit the formatting of a selection that can get you in trouble. These are pretty much every way to edit formatting or view formatting in a Word document. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to comment. Enjoy!
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