Non-printing character in word processors

Nonprinting characters or formatting marks are characters for content designing in word processors, which are not displayed at printing. It is also possible to customize their display on the monitor. The most common nonprintable characters in word processors are pilcrow, space, nonbreaking space, tab character etc.^[1]^[2]

Characters[edit]

To display characters on the monitor screen in Microsoft Word (Home tab) or OpenOffice.org and its derivatives (upper panel), press the icon ¶.^[3] The following symbols will be displayed:^{[citation needed]}

Space (·) each pressing of the space key will be displayed like this.
Nonbreaking space (°) is a space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position.
Pilcrow (¶) is the symbolic representation of paragraphs.
Line break (↵) breaks the current line without new paragraph. It puts lines of text close together.
Tab character (→) is used to align text horizontally to the next tab stop.
End-of-cell and end-of row markers (¤) appear automatically in each box when display of nonprintable characters turned on.
Soft hyphen or nonbreaking hyphen (-) is a hidden separator for hyphenation in the places specified by the user, regardless of the automatic hyphenation.^[4]
············Page Break············, ::::::::::Section Break:::::::::: or ············Column Break············

.

Key combinations[edit]

Name	Common view	Common key combinationsfor Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org (from 3.0)	Key combination in other word processors	Windows Alt Key Codes^[5]	Unicode name	Unicode code (HEX)	Unicode code (DEC)
Space	`·`	`Space`			SPACE	0x20	0032
Nonbreaking space	`°`	`Ctrl`+`⇧ Shift`+`Space`	`Ctrl`+`Space` for FrameMaker, LyX (non-Mac), OpenOffice.org (before 3.0), WordPerfect	`Alt`+`0`+`1`+`6`+`0` or `Alt`+`2`+`5`+`5` (not always works)	NO-BREAK SPACE	00A0	0160
Pilcrow	`¶`	`↵ Enter`		`Alt`+`0182` or `Alt`+`20` (on number keyboard).
Line break	`↵`	`⇧ Shift`+`↵ Enter`
Tab character	`→`	`Tab ↹`
Soft hyphen	`¬`	`Ctrl`+`-`					2011
Page break	`···Page Break···`	`Ctrl`+`↵ Enter`

References[edit]

^ support.office.com: Show or hide formatting marks
^ Onlyoffice.com:Show/hide nonprinting characters
^ "Show or hide tab marks in Word - Microsoft Support". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
^ support.office.com: Insert a hyphen
^ "Windows Alt Key Codes". Penn State University. 2010. Archived from the original on 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2016-11-05.

IBM PC keyboard (Windows, ANSI US layout) v t e
Esc	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	F7	F8	F9	F10	F11	F12	PrtScn/ SysRq	Scroll Lock	Pause/ Break

													Insert	Home	PgUp	Num Lock	∕	∗	−
													Delete	End	PgDn	7	8	9	+
																4	5	6	+
														↑		1	2	3	Enter
													←	↓	→	0 Ins		. Del	Enter

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[formatting_marks-1] support.office.com: Show or hide formatting marks

[Onlyoffice-2] Onlyoffice.com:Show/hide nonprinting characters

[3] "Show or hide tab marks in Word - Microsoft Support". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-12-11.

[hyphen-4] support.office.com: Insert a hyphen

[Alt-5] "Windows Alt Key Codes". Penn State University. 2010. Archived from the original on 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2016-11-05.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e Keyboard keys
Dead keys	Compose
Modifier keys	Control Shift Alt / Option (Apple) AltGr Command (Apple) / Windows (Microsoft) / Super Meta Hyper Fn Gold
Lock keys	Scroll Lock Num Lock Caps Lock F-Lock
Navigation keys	Arrow keys Page Up/Page Down Home End Esc Menu
Editing	Enter/Return Carriage return Backspace Insert Delete Tab Space bar Numeric keypad Language input
Contextual	Function keys Print Screen System request Break/Pause
Misc.	Power management keys (Power, Sleep, Wake) Any key Macro key Keyboard technology Keyboard shortcut Keyboard layout Keyboard mapping

Characters[edit]

Key combinations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]