Show/Hide, Etc.

If you’re not using this tool in your word processor when things go wonky with a Word document, you’re missing out.

I recently had a student send me her article. She was so frustrated with the text jumping from one page to the next. It left a huge white space at the end of one page. And no matter what she did, she couldn’t fix it. Turns out she had a Section Break (Next Page) creating havoc.

How did I know?

I turned on Show/Hide (¶). It’s on my Home toolbar menu represented by the paragraph mark ¶. If you can’t find it, use the Help on your word processor and search for it. In some word processors, Help is represented by a question mark. I’m using the most recent version of MS Word.

What does Show/Hide do?

It shows hidden characters created by the system. A single space, such as the spaces between my words, is a raised dot ·. End of paragraph is ¶. (Mine are blue to contrast with my text—yours may be a different color.) Show/hide displays the column breaks, section breaks, and page breaks, too. It lets you see what’s going on behind the text.

For this student, it also showed me that she was using five spaces instead of an indent at the start of paragraphs. If one uses the tab to indent a paragraph, most word processors “learn” that is what is wanted and all new paragraphs will be indented automatically saving the writer time and effort. Note: Indent on your menu moves the left margin of an entire paragraph to the right. Tab only goes to your first tab which is usually one-half inch.

I’ve used Show/Hide and found places where I had multiple spaces when only one was needed. A Find and Replace can take care of that issue. (Under the Edit menu. Find space space, Replace All space). No more duplicate spaces.

How to fix an unwanted break

Usually your cursor can be put after the full expression of the break (at the right) and then you backspace which will delete it.

Sometimes, it’s resistant. Then, I’ve copied the text around it, including the pesky break, and pasted it into a new document by using Paste Special. (Under the Edit menu.) When the window pops up with options, choose Unformatted Text. This will paste it in without any extra formatting. Copy that and repaste over the same section in your original document.

If all else fails, copy the entire document and Paste Special, Unformatted Text in a new document. You will lose headers, but you can go back and copy the original header and paste into the new document. You also may lose double-spacing, and blank lines at the beginning of your manuscript, but those are easily fixed.

How to add a break

Say you’ve reached the end of your article and you want to add the bibliography to your document. Instead of using return/enter until you reach a new page (which, if you make any changes earlier in the document, won’t leave the vertical spacing correct) use Insert Break. My version of Word shows Insert next to Home. I click on it and can choose Page Break. Or on the very top menu line, I can chose Insert and then Page Break. The same method works at the end of a chapter in a novel so the new one starts on a new page. Your word processor may have this option elsewhere, but most offer it. Again, use Help if you can’t find it.

One last important tool

The rulers. I always have this on. The top one—a horizontal ruler—lets me see what is happening with my margins and tabs. The one on the left, shows me where I am vertically on the page. It also shows the top and bottom margins. I find it under View, either as a checkbox or as the word Ruler which I check by clicking on it.

Yes, word processors can be frustrating. But if you learn to use the tools that are offered, they can be a big help.

Additional Notes:

• You can always search youtube.com for a how to. For example, this is a recent video on Show/Hide: https://youtu.be/XK9lw-2Rrmg
• Google docs does not have the same options that a Word document has. It’s compatible with Word. I do not recommend opening a document in Google docs if you are planning to make comments and send back to the original writer. Instead download it, and open in Word.