To show formatting marks in Word, use the Show/Hide ¶ button on the ribbon or the matching keyboard shortcut; you can also make specific marks always visible in Word’s settings.

What “formatting marks” are

Formatting marks (also called non-printing characters) are symbols that show hidden layout details such as:

  • Paragraph marks (¶) – where each paragraph ends.
  • Spaces (·) – dots between words.
  • Tabs (→) – arrows showing tab stops.
  • Page and section breaks – labeled lines showing breaks in the document.

They don’t print; they’re just there to help you clean up and control the layout.

Windows: show formatting marks in Word

The fastest way is the ¶ button in the Home tab.

  1. Open your Word document.
  2. Go to the Home tab.
  3. In the Paragraph group, click the ¶ (Show/Hide) icon to toggle formatting marks on or off.

You can also permanently show certain marks:

  1. Click File → Options → Display.
  2. Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen , tick the types you always want to see (e.g., paragraph marks, spaces, tabs).
  1. Click OK to save.

This way, those marks appear even if the ¶ button is turned off.

Mac: show formatting marks in Word

On a Mac, the idea is the same: use the Show/Hide paragraph icon or a shortcut.

  • On the Home tab, click the icon in the toolbar to toggle formatting marks.
  • You can also use the keyboard shortcut (commonly Command + 8) to turn them on or off in recent Mac versions.

Once enabled, you’ll see paragraph marks, spaces, tabs, and break indicators, which makes cleaning up spacing and strange layout issues much easier.

Why this helps (quick example)

Imagine a document where some lines look “randomly” indented or spaced. With formatting marks on, you can instantly see if the problem is:

  • Extra spaces between words.
  • Hidden tab characters.
  • A manual line break or page break.

You then delete or adjust exactly the mark causing the issue instead of guessing and retyping.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.