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- #Show non printing characters in word for the mac full
- #Show non printing characters in word for the mac mac
You can display these special characters, which Word refers to as nonprinting characters, by following these steps: For instance, Word uses special characters to indicate the end of a line or the end of a paragraph. In addition, there are several special characters that Word uses for housekeeping purposes. Your e-mail address will not be published or shared with third parties.įirst comments from new name/e-mail combinations will be held in moderation.There are several different characters, such as a space and tab, which Word does not normally display on the screen. Your email address will not be published. If you can’t stand typing with the non-printing characters visible, it is still good to enable them when you are formatting a document with complex layout. It takes a little time to adapt, but they help me detect and fix layout problems when I create the problem, before it spreads through a large document. I always have them enabled, even if I’m writing a simple letter. When should I enable non-printing characters? Tabs are too complex to be fully discussed here, but once understood they can be used to create elegant layouts that are easy to edit. The exact spacing depends on the tabs set up in the paragraph format. Tabs create a measured gap to the next piece of text on the same line.
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Once typed, the only way to know that bad layout was caused by an accidental line break is to make the non-printing characters visible. This makes it easy to accidentally type a line break while intending to enter a paragraph break. Line breaks are entered with shift– enter or shift– return. They will also wreck the layout of Justified text. This will not be visibly different from a paragraph break unless the paragraph formatting includes space before or after, or special first line formatting. Line breaks move to a new line without starting a new paragraph. Paragraph breaks are what you type with the enter or return key 2. Do not over-use them, or your line endings will be ragged 1.
#Show non printing characters in word for the mac full
If it is important that a name or phrase appear in full without being broken across a line or page, use a non-breaking space.
#Show non printing characters in word for the mac mac
Under Windows, they are typed with ctrl– shift– space under Mac OS, they are typed with option– space. The way you type them depends on your operating system, not your application. Non-breaking spaces will “glue” words together so they can’t be separated over a line ending. Spaces are what you type with the space bar. Invisibles in Pages are always coloured blue. They may be enabled from the “View” drop-down menu on the toolbar, or in the “View” menu in the menu bar. In Pages, non-printing characters are referred to as “Invisibles”. LibreOffice displays the characters much like Word, except that non-breaking spaces (see below) receive a grey background. This option may also be found in the “View” menu, under “Nonprinting characters”. This is a common format for headings, as it guarantees that, if the paragraph immediately following the heading wraps onto the next page, the heading will move with it.įind the “Standard” toolbar, and make sure the “¶” button at the right end is enabled.
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An unusual feature is that it places a large black square at the start of lines that have “Keep with next” enabled under “Text flow”. Once enabled, the non-printing characters appear as shown below. Go the the “Home” tab of the ribbon, find the “Paragraph” section and make sure the “¶” button is enabled. In most word processors, non-printing characters are indicated by a ¶ symbol, which is also known as a pilcrow. As the name implies, they only appear on your screen, not in print, or when you export to PDF. The blue symbols are non-printing characters, and they show why your layout is happening. Usually people who notice this go “Aargh! Hideous!”, but this time the response was “That looks useful”, and it is. Know your layoutĮarlier this year, someone walked past while I was word processing and noticed my screen was full of odd characters.
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They allow your word processor to tell you how your document layout works.