Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
The best way to find hidden formatting in Word is to show formatting marks. Because when you show formatting marks in Word, you can see exactly what’s going on in your document. You’re then in a better position to make formatting changes. And less likely to affect any underlying formatting.
But first, what are formatting marks?
Formatting marks are one of those things that people either love or hate. For me, I love them. I don’t always have formatting marks showing as I work. But I do find that they make it easier to find hidden formatting in my Word document.
Showing formatting marks allows you to see things such as:
- Paragraph marks;
- Tab characters;
- Spaces;
- Section and page breaks;
- Merged cells in a table; and
- Hidden text.
An example of how hidden formatting can become problematic …
Let me give you a scenario where hidden formatting could cause you endless grief. And that is where a paragraph has been formatted using Keep with next.
Now, Keep with next is a great way, for example, to keep a paragraph connected to a numbered or bulleted list.
But 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. So you place the cursor at the start of the paragraph, and insert the new paragraph there.
The new paragraph takes on the same Keep with next setting.
This may not be an issue initially. However, it may become one if you then insert a large amount of text and/or a few more paragraphs. 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. And you’re left with a gaping blank space at the bottom of your page!
Unless you’re on top of all the formatting options Word offers, you may not realise what’s going on. But if you show formatting marks, you’ll at least be able to tell there’s some kind of formatting applied to the text. You’re then in a better position to work out how to fix that gaping hole!
How to show formatting marks in Word
To show formatting marks in Word:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+8; or
- Click the Show/Hide button (Home > Paragraph).
Like me, you may find it distracting to work with formatting marks displayed. If this is the case, only switch them on when you run into trouble. To hide formatting marks in Word, deactivate them again using either of the above methods.
