Hidden spaces in word

Show or Hide White Space in Microsoft Word Documents

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated February 9, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)

You can show or hide white space at the top and bottom of pages in Microsoft Word documents. If you hide white space, you won’t be able to see headers, footers or top and bottom margins in Print Layout View. The gray space that typically appears at the top and bottom of pages as you scroll through your document will also disappear. If you want to show or hide spaces between words, you’ll need to click Show/Hide ¶ on the Home tab in the Ribbon.

Print Layout View is the default view in Word. You can click the View tab in the Ribbon and select Print Layout in the Views group to go to this view if necessary.

In Word documents, margins are set for the top and bottom of pages by default and can be changed on the Layout tab in the Ribbon. Headers and footers appear in the top and bottom margin areas (with the exception of floating objects) so if white space is hidden, headers and footers may seem to be missing.

Recommended article: How to Hide Comments in Word (or Display Them)

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Showing or hiding white space using a shortcut

To show or hide white space in Word using a shortcut:

1. Position the cursor at the top of the document (you can press Ctrl + Home to move the cursor to the top of the document).
2. Move the pointer into the gray area just above the first page (below the Ruler) until the pointer turns into an up and down arrow. A message appears to Double-click to show white space or Double-click to hide white space.
3. Double-click. If you are hiding white space, you can also position the pointer in the gray area between pages and then double-click.

If you show or hide white space, this setting will continue in any new documents you create. When white space is hidden, the setting affects not just the white space between pages but anything that is part of the header or footer (including watermarks and other graphics anchored to the header or footer). When you save and close a document, the setting is retained in the document.

If you hide white space, page breaks are still visible in the document. If you print the document, the headers and footers will print even if white space is hidden.

Showing or hiding white space using the Options dialog box

To show or hide white space using the Word Options dialog box:

1. Open a Word document where you want to show or hide white space.
2. Click the File tab in the Ribbon.
3. Select Options. A dialog box appears.
4. In the categories on the left, select Display.
5. In the pane on the right, check or uncheck Show whitespace between pages in Print Layout view.
6. Click OK.

The Options dialog box, with the Display category selected, appears as follows:

Because this feature isn’t obvious, it can cause problems for users if areas in their document seem to be missing (such as headers or footers).

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Как вы наверняка знаете, в текстовых документах помимо видимых знаков (знаки препинания и т.д.), есть также и невидимые, точнее, непечатаемые. В числе таковых пробелы, знаки табуляции, интервалы, разрывы страниц и разрывы разделов. Они есть в документе, но визуально никак не обозначаются, однако, при необходимости их всегда можно просмотреть.

Примечание: Режим отображения непечатаемых знаков в MS Word позволяет не только просто их увидеть, но и при необходимости распознать и убрать в документе лишние отступы, например, двойные пробелы или знаки табуляции, установленные вместо пробелов. Также, в этом режиме можно отличить обычный пробел от длинного, короткого, четверного или неразрывного.

Уроки:
Как в Ворде убрать большие пробелы
Как вставить неразрывный пробел

Несмотря на то, что режим отображения непечатаемых знаков в Word во многих случаях является очень полезным, для некоторых пользователей он выливается в серьезную проблему. Так, многие из них, по ошибке или по незнанию включив этот режим, не могут самостоятельно разобраться с тем, как его отключить. Именно о том, как убрать непечатаемые знаки в Ворде мы и расскажем ниже.

Примечание: Как понятно из названия, непечатаемые знаки на печать не выводятся, они просто отображаются в текстовом документе, если активирован этот режим просмотра.

Если в вашем документе Word включен режим отображения непечатаемых знаков, выглядеть он будет приблизительно так:

В конце каждой строки стоит символ “¶”, он также находится и в пустых строках, если таковые имеются в документе. Кнопку с этим символом вы можете найти на панели управления во вкладке “Главная” в группе “Абзац”. Она будет активна, то есть, нажата — это и значит, что режим отображения непечатаемых знаков включен. Следовательно, для его отключения необходимо просто повторно нажать эту же кнопку.

Примечание: В версиях Ворд младше 2012 года группа “Абзац”, а вместе с ней и кнопка включения режима отображения непечатаемых знаков, находятся во вкладке “Разметка страницы” (2007 и выше) или “Формат” (2003).

Однако, в некоторых случаях проблема так просто не решается, особенно часто жалуются пользователи Microsoft Office для Mac. К слову, пользователи, перескочившие со старой версии продукта на новую, тоже не всегда могут найти эту кнопку. В данном случае для отключения режима отображения непечатаемых знаков лучше использовать комбинацию клавиш.

Урок: Горячие клавиши в Word

Просто нажмите “CTRL+SHIFT+8”.

Режим отображения непечатаемых знаков будет отключен.

Если и это вам не помогло, значит, в настройках Ворда установлено обязательно отображение непечатаемых знаков вместе со всеми остальными знаками форматирования. Чтобы отключить их отображение, выполните следующие действия:

1. Откройте меню “Файл” и выберите пункт “Параметры”.

Примечание: Ранее в MS Word вместо кнопки “Файл” была кнопка “MS Office”, а раздел “Параметры” назывался “Параметры Word”.

2. Перейдите в раздел “Экран” и найдите там пункт “Всегда показывать эти знаки форматирования на экране”.

3. Уберите все галочки кроме “Привязка объектов”.

4. Теперь непечатаемые знаки точно не будут отображаться в документе, по крайней мере до тех пор, пока вы сами не включите этот режим, нажав кнопку на панели управления или используя комбинации клавиш.

На этом все, из этой небольшой статьи вы узнали, как отключить отображение непечатаемых знаков в текстовом документе Ворд. Успехов вам в дальнейшем освоении функциональных возможностей этой офисной программы.

You can show or hide, if you see a lot of strange symbols in the document, some or all of these
symbols by clicking the button Show/Hide ¶ (or pressing Ctrl+* or
Ctrl+Shift+8):

Notes:

• Each of nonprintable characters that you will see after highlighting this button, can be
  selected and removed from the document. Also, you can select, delete or replace all
  occurrences of a particular kind of special symbols, see
  Replacing special characters.
• There are some other useful elements that you can use in a document such as bookmarks, fields,
  etc. You can show and hide them too, independently from the nonprinting symbols. See
  How to show/hide bookmarks in a Word document,
  How to turn on or turn off highlighting off fields in a Word document.

You can selectively show only spaces in the document, only Tabulation symbols,
etc. To show or hide specific nonprintable symbols, do the following:

   1.   On the File tab, click the Options
button:

   2.   In the Word Options dialog box, open the
Display tab and then check or uncheck options as you like:

• Tab characters or Tabulations: If you check this checkbox, all tabulations
  will be shown as an arrow symbol (→):

  

  See
  A perfect text alignment using tabs
  and
  Setting tabs using the Tabs dialog box.

• Spaces can differ:
  • When you type the text, usually you separate words (sentences or even syllables in
    some languages) by pressing the Space key (also known as Spacebar).

    Usual or common space is shown as a little dot between words:

    

  • To keep words together, can a Nonbreaking space (also called
    non-breaking space, no-break space,
    non-breakable space (NBSP), hard space, or
    fixed space) be used. A Nonbreaking space in the Word document
    looks like a degree symbols between words:

    

    See
    How to keep two or several words together in a document Word.

  • Sometimes more specific spacing characters like Em Space, En Space or
    ¼ Em Space are used.

    These spaces distinguish by their width:

    • Em space means a space the same width as a lowercase m
      character.
    • En space means a space the same width as a lowercase n
      character.
    • ¼ Em space (also known as mid space) accordingly means a
      space the same width as a lowercase m character divided by 4 —
      one fourth of an Em Space wide.

    Em space and En space are shown as common space, as a little dot
    between words, but with wider gaps before and after them. ¼ Em Space looks
    like a vertical bar between words:

    
• Paragraph marks or pilcrows (¶) represent a paragraph break.

  They are inserted by Word at the end of every paragraph. In other words, it appears every
  time when you press Enter:

  

  Notes:

  1. As you can see in the example above, many of emails are formatted incorrectly. See
     How to remove paragraph symbols for every line in Word.
  2. The paragraph mark ¶ contains all the paragraph formatting. To copy all paragraph
     formatting, you can select this symbol, copy it, and then paste it into another
     paragraph. The last ¶ in the document contains formatting for the last section of the
     document, or for entire document if it contains just one section.

     See
     How to copy paragraph or numbering format without changing the text format
     and
     How to do anything with paragraph format with keyboard.

• Hidden text can be used in any Word document because it is a pre-defined format like
  Italic or Bold. It isn’t necessary to do something extra to add hidden text.

  Hidden text is shown with a dotted underline:

  

  See
  Check the document for hidden information
  and
  11 Shortcut Keys to control font format.

  Notes: In contrast of other nonprinting characters, hidden text can be
  printed. See
  How to see/show a hidden text in a Word document
  and
  How to print a hidden text in a Word document.

• Optional hyphens are used to break specific lines of text.

  They are shown as ¬.

  For example, if a lengthy word wraps to the next line and leaves a large amount of white
  space, you can insert an optional hyphen in that specific word so that the first part
  appears on the first line. If the word later moves to a different position because of
  editing, the optional hyphen does not print. If further editing moves the word back into
  a hyphenation zone, the hyphen reappears:

  

  See
  Using nonbreaking and optional hyphens.

• Object anchors are shown in a document just when you select an object.

  Any floating object in a document has an anchor that is tied to a particular paragraph
  . It can be moved, replaced or
  removed with that paragraph like its part.

  It is possible to move any anchor to any other paragraph.
• The Show all formatting marks checkbox mirrors the button Show/Hide ¶ that was
  described above. When you click to highlight that button on the ribbon or non-highlight it
  (or use shortcut keys for that), that checkbox will be checked or unchecked appropriately.

Other formatting marks that you can see in the document by clicking on the Show/Hide ¶
button:

• Line breaks:

  a) As a right-angle arrow pointing to the left
  . This symbol can be added
  to the document to start a new line, not a new paragraph, by clicking on
  Shift+Enter:

  

  b) As a right-angle arrow between two vertical lines
  . This symbol shows the
  break that separate text around object, such as a caption text or an image from the body
  text.

  

• Pagination breaks — a Column break, a Page break and a Section break
  are used for the better formatting of the document:

  

  

  

  To add the page break, just click Ctrl+Enter.

• Keep marks are shown as a small black bullet ■ on the margin next to the paragraph:

  

  Keep marks represents some of paragraph options:

  • Keep with next,
  • Keep lines together,
  • Page break before.

  See
  How to keep lines and paragraphs together in a Word document
  for more details.

  You can open the Paragraph dialog box and see keep marks by double-clicking on the
  appropriate keep mark.

• End-of-cell and End-of-row marks that you can see in tables as universal
  monetary symbol or currency sign (¤) looks like a circle with four lines
  radiating from the corner:

  

  End-of-cell marks like a paragraph marks contain formatting for the last (or only)
  paragraph in the cell and formatting for the cell.

  End-of-row marks placed at the end of each row of a table. They contain formatting
  for the row.

Notes:

• You can show or hide all these special symbols, but they are still non-printable! You can
  print just some of them.
• To delete any of these special characters, select them and press the Delete key.
• Displaying of these special characters is very helpful for troubleshooting. If your text
  doesn’t break as you like, it can be because you have too many (or the wrong) paragraphs set
  as Keep with next.

  If your printer is adding a blank page at the end of your document, it could be because of
  several empty paragraphs at the end that are forcing an extra page.

  If an automatic number insists on being bold even though you have applied bold formatting
  only to the part of the numbered paragraph, it can be because of paragraph marks. You need
  to select the paragraph mark and un-bold it, since automatic bullets and numbering take
  on the formatting of the paragraph mark.

See also this tip in French:
Comment afficher / masquer les symboles non imprimables dans le document Word.

To double-space the whole document, go to Design > Paragraph Spacing, and choose Double. Tip: To double-space only part of the document, select the paragraphs you want to change, go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing, and choose 2.0. Important: Office 2010 is no longer supported.

Double Spacing

1. Select the text you want to be double spaced.
2. Click on the Home tab.
3. Look for the Paragraph options.
4. Find an icon that has four horizontal lines, and two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Click the icon to expand.
5. Select 2.0 to double space your text.

How do I change the spacing between words in Word 2010?

Change the spacing between characters

1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Spacing box, click Expanded or Condensed, and then specify how much space you want in the By box.

How do you get white space in Word 2010?

On the Tools menu, click Options. Click the View tab and then click to select or clear the White space between pages check box. Rest the mouse pointer over the gray area above or below a page and then click when you see the Hide White Space or Show White Space pointer.

How do I double space?

Use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + 1 to single space, Ctrl + 2 to double space, or Ctrl + 5 to set the spacing to 1.5 line spacing on any line, paragraph, or all highlighted text. When pressing Enter , it starts a new paragraph with extra space between the two paragraphs.

What is the shortcut for double spacing?

To single or double spacing from the keyboard, select the paragraph(s) in question and press the following key combinations, respectively:

1. Ctrl+1 for single space.
2. Ctrl+2 for double space.

The word positioning is optimized for printing, not for the screen. Letters have (slightly) different widths on different devices, and the spaces between words is where Word collects the extra.

How do I do 1.5 spacing on Word?

To format line spacing:

1. Click Format on the menu bar.
2. Select Paragraph. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. Click the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. In the line spacing drop-down menu, you can select single, 1.5, or double spacing. The default is single spacing.
5. Click OK.

All you need to do is follow these steps:

1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options.
2. Click Display at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
3. Make sure the Spaces check box is selected.
4. Click on OK.

Why is word not showing my spaces?

The Cause. It turns out there is a fairly simple cause for this: You have a Section Break at the point in your document where you’re seeing this behaviour. You can verify this by hitting ctrl+* (ctrl+shift+8) to show Formatting Marks.

How do I find hidden spaces in Word?

Showing or hiding white space using the Options dialog box

1. Open a Word document where you want to show or hide white space.
2. Click the File tab in the Ribbon.
3. Select Options.
4. In the categories on the left, select Display.
5. In the pane on the right, check or uncheck Show whitespace between pages in Print Layout view.

What is double space in Word?

In text formatting, a double space means sentences contain a full blank line (the equivalent of the full height of a line of text) between the rows of words.Most word processors allow for custom spacing, including the ability to automatically double space a document.

What does double space mean in Word?

Word forms: double-spaces, double-spacing, double-spaced. 1. transitive verb. If you double-space something you are writing or typing, you include a full line of space between each line of writing. Double-space the entire list.

What is the keyboard shortcut for space?

Special Characters

How do I fix the spacing between words in Word justified?

Click the “Home” tab and then select the “Distributed” button in the Paragraph group. Alternatively, press “Ctrl-Shift-J.” This applies a full justification effect that evenly distributes spaces in both words and characters.

Where is the alignment in Microsoft Word?

Align text left or right in Microsoft Word
In the Paragraph section, click or tap on Align Left or Align Right, depending on what you want. TIP: You can also align text to the left or the right faster by selecting the text and then pressing the CTRL + L or CTRL + R keys on your keyboard.

Is 1.5 spacing double spacing?

Press Ctrl+1 for single-spacing, Ctrl+5 for 1.5 spacing, or Ctrl+2 for double-spacing.

When writing in Microsoft Word, we place spaces (using the space-bar on the keyboard) between words to make the sentence more readable. When we type a sentence, Word treats a space as a character and uses the space between words to decide where to fold the sentence and continue it on the next line when the sentence gets longer than the line length specified by the page size.

For instance consider the two sentences within a finite boundary defining the line length:

As the length of the first sentence is shorter than the line length, Word is not folding the sentence. However, the second sentence is longer, and Word is folding it using the space between the words Very and Lightly.

For some reason, such as for clarity, we may want Word to retain the two words Very and Lightly on the same line rather than separating them as above. The sentence would then look like:

This requires replacing the regular space present between the words Very and Lightly with a non-breaking space. Such non-breaking spaces are also known as nonbreaking spaces or no-break spaces. Word recognizes non-breaking spaces and treats any two words cojoined by a non-breaking space as a single entity.

We will explain how to let Word insert a non-breaking space in a sentence where it is necessary. You can do this in two ways:

• Using Keyboard Short-Cuts to Introduce Non-Breaking Space
• Using Menus to Introduce Non-Breaking Space

Let’s start.

Method #1: Using Keyboard Short-Cuts to Introduce Non-Breaking Space

Step #1: Open a Word Document

Open a Word document containing the sentence where you want to introduce non-breaking space. For instance, we would like to keep the words micro and controllers together, but Word has split them onto two lines.

Step #2: Show Hidden Characters

Click on the Home tab on the menu bar on top. Next, click on the Show/Hide icon. This will reveal space and other characters between words that normally Word hides from view.

Note: Step #2 is only for instructional purposes. Once you have mastered the technique, you may skip this step.

Step #3: Insert Non-Breaking Space

Select the space between the words micro and controller (represented by the dot). On your keyboard, press the keys Ctrl, Shift, and Space together. Note that the selected dot has now changed into a small circle—meaning Word has replaced the regular space with a non-breaking space. Also note that the two words are no longer on two lines, but appear together on the same line.

Step #4: Hide Hidden Characters

You may repeat Step #3 at as many places in the sentence as necessary. Once you are satisfied, click on Show/Hide icon to revert to the regular view.

To remove the non-breaking space and revert to the regular space, select the non-breaking space and hit the space-bar once on your keyboard.

Method #2: Using Menus to Introduce Non-Breaking Space

Step #1: Open a Word Document

Open a Word document containing the sentence where you want to introduce non-breaking space. For instance, we would like to keep the words micro and controllers together, but Word has split them onto two lines.

Step #2: Show Hidden Characters

Click on the Home tab on the menu bar on top. Next, click on the Show/Hide icon. This will reveal space and other characters between words that normally Word hides from view.

Note: Step #2 is only for instructional purposes. Once you have mastered the technique, you may skip this step.

Step #3: Open Symbols Dialog

Select the space between the words micro and controller (represented by the dot). Click on the Insert tab in the top menu bar to change the ribbon. Then click on Symbol, and in the dialog that opens, click on More Symbols to open the Symbols Selection Dialog.

Step #4: Insert Non-Breaking Space

In the Symbols Selection Dialog, click on the Special Characters tab [1]. Scroll down to Non-breaking Space [2]. Click on Insert [3]. Word will insert the non-breaking space (represented by a small circle) in place of the regular space and place the two words micro and controller on the same line. Close the dialog by clicking on Cancel [4].

Step #5:  Hide Hidden Characters

You may repeat Step #4 at as many places in the sentence as necessary. Once you are satisfied, click on Show/Hide icon to revert to the regular view.

Conclusion

Word uses several types of spaces to format sentences. We have discussed two methods of using the non-breaking space to replace a regular space to make the sentence more readable. Use the method you find most suitable.