Hidden formatting marks
If you ever see something strange happen in your document and aren't sure what is going on, turning on your formatting symbols is a good first step in troubleshooting. Doing this can help you view everything that has been physically entered into the document, whether it is a space, a tab, a paragraph return, an object anchor, or simply a page break.
Turning on the hidden formatting marks and symbols
To turn on or display your document's hidden formatting marks and symbols, there are a couple of approaches you can use. You can toggle them on and off, as needed, from the Home tab, or you can turn select symbols on permanently from your File menu.
Method 1 – toggling on and off
To temporarily see what formatting is hiding in your document, perform the following steps:
- From the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click on the Show/Hide paragraph symbol, or use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + *: