What are nonprinting characters that display within the text to designate formatting elements such as spaces tabs and paragraph and line breaks?

I recently received a question about how to show non-printing characters in Google Docs. This is a feature in Microsoft Word that can be very helpful when editing a document. These characters could include:

Spaces
Tabs
Paragraphs marks
Tables without borders
Page breaks

Sometimes the text or alignment a document is "acting funny" because there are non-printing characters and elements that can't be seen but are affecting the layout of the page. In Microsoft Word you can turn on this feature to temporarily display these normally invisible characters. When you can see the spaces and paragraph marks and tabs, sometimes that can help you to find the problem in the document, such as a hidden table or a long string of spaces.

Unfortunately this is one of the few Word features that is not natively included in Google Docs. Thankfully though there is a Google Docs add-on that can replicate this feature pretty well, at least until Google officially adds this to Docs. See below for details on how to use this helpful add-on.

Installing the "Show" Add-on

To be able to display non-printing characters in a Google Doc, you need to install the "Show" add-on as follows:

Open a Google Doc as normal.
Click "Add-ons" in the top menu bar, and choose "Get Add-ons" from the drop-down menu.
Rather than scroll through all the add-ons to find "Show" it will probably be quickest to simply type "Show" in the "Search add-ons" box in the top right.
Alternately you can use this link to go directly to the "Show" add-on: Google Docs Add-on link
When you find the "Show" add-on, click the "+ FREE" button to install it.

In the permissions windows, click "Allow".
The "Show" add-on will now be installed.

Before you can use the "Show" add-on you still have to "activate" it as follows:

Click "Add-ons" in the top menu bar.
Hover above "Show" in the list of installed add-ons.
Click "Activate Show extension".
Click "Yes" in the pop-up window.

Displaying Non-Printing Characters

You can use the "Show" add-on to display non-printing characters by doing the following:

Click "Add-ons" in the top menu bar.
Hover above "Show" in the drop-down menu.
Hover above "Show" again in the slide-out menu.
Choose the type of non-printing character you wish to see including Non-breakable spaces, Spaces, Tabs, Page breaks, and Line breaks.

After making your selection you Google Doc will update to show the chosen character type.
You can choose as many types of non-printing characters as you want to display multiple types at once.
If you want the non-printing characters to be highlighted green so you can see them easier, you can also choose the "Highlight symbols" menu option.

Below is an example showing all the different types of non-printing characters.

Hiding Non-Printing Characters

After you are done seeing the non-printing characters you will need to reverse the process to hide them again. Otherwise the symbols will remain in the document and will actually print out.

Note: The reason for this is because the "Show" add-on is actually replacing the non-printing characters with visible symbols through a "find and replace" procedure.

To hide the symbols when done do the following:

Click "Add-ons" in the top menu bar.
Hover above "Show" in the drop-down menu.
Click "Hide all" to hide any and all non-printing characters in the document.

Conclusion Google continually adds new features to Docs, so hopefully there will be a built-in way to show non-printing characters in the future, and this blog post will become obsolete. However for now, the "Show" add-on is an option we can use to simulate this function.

Page 2

You can easily show non-printing characters in Word documents. In Word, the “Spacebar,” “Tab,” and “Enter” keys all create characters within your document. In this regard, they act like most other keyboard characters keys do. However, unlike most other characters, you cannot normally see these characters. This means that they can sometimes cause problems if they are accidentally selected. For example, accidentally selecting a “Tab” character can cause a problem when copying and pasting text from one location to another in a document.

Sometimes, you may want to show non-printing characters in your Word documents. To show non-printing characters in Word, click the “Home” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Show/Hide Non-Printing Characters” button in the “Paragraph” button group. The face of the button looks like the paragraph mark (“¶”).

After you click this button, it then appears highlighted to let you know that the function is turned on. To then hide non-printing characters in Word, click the same “Show/Hide Non-Printing Characters” button again. Doing this then turns the display of the non-printing characters back off.

Show Non-Printing Characters in Word – Instructions: A picture of a document after showing the non-printing characters in Microsoft Word.

Show Non-Printing Characters in Word: Instructions

To show non-printing characters in Word documents, click the “Home” tab in the Ribbon.
Then click the “Show/Hide Non-Printing Characters” button within the “Paragraph” button group.
To hide the display of the non-printing characters in your document, click the “Show/Hide Non-Printing Characters” button again.

Show Non-Printing Characters in Word: Video Lesson

The following video lesson, titled “Non-Printing Characters,” shows you how to show non-printing characters in Microsoft Word 2016. This video lesson is from our complete Word tutorial, titled “Mastering Word Made Easy v.2019 and 365.”