Remove Formatting Marks in Word: Show or Hide Them

To remove formatting marks from view in Word, press Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows or Command+8 on Mac, or select Home > ¶ Show/Hide. This hides marks such as paragraph symbols, dots for spaces, and arrows for tabs; it does not delete them or change the document’s formatting.

What Word’s Formatting Marks Show

Formatting marks, also called nonprinting characters, are visual indicators of the structure and spacing in a document. They help explain why text is arranged a certain way, even though they normally do not appear on a printed page or in a PDF. Turning them on can make a document look crowded, but the symbols are not extra text that Word has inserted into the content.

The most familiar mark is the pilcrow, ¶, which appears at the end of a paragraph. Word stores paragraph formatting, such as alignment and spacing before or after a paragraph, in this paragraph mark. A visible paragraph mark therefore signals where one paragraph ends and the next begins. It is not a character you usually want to remove just to make the page look cleaner.

Other marks reveal particular kinds of spacing or document structure:

Dots between words represent ordinary spaces. They are displayed as small dots rather than as the spaces themselves.
Right-pointing arrows represent tab characters. A tab can move text to a tab stop, so several tabs may create a visibly wide gap.
Small circles can represent nonbreaking spaces, which keep two items together on the same line.
Page-break or section-break labels and lines identify breaks that affect pagination or layout.
Object anchors can show where a floating image or other object is attached to a paragraph.

The exact symbols you see depend on what the document contains and which display options are enabled. A symbol’s presence is useful diagnostic information: it can explain why a line will not wrap normally, why text jumps to a new page, or why an image moves with a particular paragraph.

Hide Formatting Marks with the Ribbon or Shortcut

In Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, open the Home tab and, in the Paragraph group, select the ¶ Show/Hide button. Selecting it toggles the display of nonprinting marks. If the marks are showing, the button turns them off; select it again whenever you want to inspect the document.

The Windows keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+8. Use the number 8 on the main keyboard; on some keyboards, the shortcut may be easier to enter with the number row rather than a numeric keypad. This shortcut is a toggle, not a delete command. If it appears to do nothing, try the ribbon button and check whether individual mark types have been set to display all the time.

In Word for Mac, use Command+8 or select Home > Show/Hide ¶ in the ribbon. Ribbon labels and their placement can vary slightly with the Word for Mac version and window size. The command’s purpose is the same: it switches the display of formatting marks without changing the document’s contents.

Choose Which Marks Remain Visible

You do not always have to show or hide every kind of mark at once. Word has display settings for specific marks, which can be useful if you want to inspect paragraph breaks but do not want every space displayed as a dot. In Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, choose File > Options > Display. Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, select or clear the boxes for the types you want to see, such as tab characters, spaces, paragraph marks, hidden text, optional hyphens, or object anchors. The available options can vary by Word version.

These checkboxes behave differently from the general Show/Hide button. A mark type selected under the always-show settings can remain visible even when you toggle the general button off. If a particular symbol refuses to disappear, return to File > Options > Display and check whether its individual option is selected. Clear that option if you want the mark hidden in the normal editing view.

On Mac, look in Word’s application settings for the view or formatting-mark display controls; the menu may be labeled Word > Settings or Word > Preferences, depending on the release. You can also use the Show/Hide control in the ribbon. If settings appear different from instructions written for Windows, that is generally a difference in the app’s interface rather than a change to the document.

Hiding Marks Is Not the Same as Removing Formatting

A common source of confusion is the word “remove.” Toggling Show/Hide removes the symbols from the screen, not the formatting or structural characters from the file. A paragraph mark still exists when it is hidden, and the paragraph’s alignment and spacing remain in effect. Likewise, a tab remains a tab after its arrow disappears from view.

If you want to remove formatting applied to selected text, select the text and use Home > Clear All Formatting in Word for Windows. This command removes many character-formatting choices, such as font styling and color, and returns the selection to the document’s default formatting. It does not simply hide marks, and it may not remove every kind of layout or paragraph setting. For paragraph formatting, place the cursor in the paragraph or select the relevant paragraphs and use the controls in the Home tab’s Paragraph group, or inspect paragraph settings directly.

For example, suppose a heading has an unwanted blue font and bold styling. Clearing formatting can reset those text styles, while Show/Hide only changes whether you can see the paragraph symbol at the heading’s end. If a paragraph has extra space after it, clearing character formatting may not fix that spacing; adjust the paragraph spacing instead. Choose the command based on whether the problem is visual clutter from marks or actual formatting in the document.

When You May Need to Delete a Character

Sometimes a visible mark points to a real character that you do want to remove. For instance, an extra paragraph mark may create an unwanted blank paragraph, or a tab may push a word too far across the page. In that situation, turn on Show/Hide so you can locate the character, click or drag to select it, and press Backspace or Delete as appropriate. Then turn Show/Hide off again if you prefer the clean editing view.

Be cautious when deleting paragraph marks. Removing one joins the text on either side into a single paragraph, and the resulting paragraph may inherit formatting from one of the original paragraphs. Deleting a section break can also change headers, footers, page numbering, margins, or page orientation in the surrounding sections. If you are unsure what a break controls, save a copy before deleting it and check the layout afterward.

A nonbreaking space is another example: it looks like a special mark only while formatting marks are visible, but it has a specific purpose. It keeps adjacent text together, such as a number and its unit. Replacing it with a normal space may allow the phrase to split across lines. Remove or replace such a character only when you intend to change how the text wraps.

Why Marks May Still Appear

If formatting marks remain after you select Show/Hide, first identify which marks are still visible. If only one kind remains, its individual display option may be enabled in Word’s settings. If all marks remain, make sure you are using the Show/Hide control in the document window and that the shortcut was entered for the platform you are using. The Windows and Mac shortcuts are different.

Also distinguish formatting marks from other on-screen indicators. A colored underline may be a spelling or grammar suggestion, not a nonprinting character. A comment balloon or tracked change is review markup, not a paragraph mark. Those features have separate display controls. Hiding formatting marks will not accept or reject tracked changes, remove comments, or switch off spelling suggestions.

If marks appear in a document opened on another computer, the other person may simply have a different display preference. In ordinary circumstances, Show/Hide changes the editing view rather than the printed content, so the marks do not become part of the page just because they are visible on screen. If you are preparing a document for someone else, check Print Preview or create a PDF to confirm how the page will look.

Printing, Sharing, and Document Appearance

Formatting marks are intended to help with editing, not to decorate the finished document. They ordinarily do not print, and they are not normally included in a PDF exported from Word. Still, it is sensible to review the final page in File > Print before printing, especially if a document contains hidden text, comments, tracked changes, or unusual layout settings. Those features are distinct from ordinary formatting marks and can have their own print or display options.

When sharing a document for editing, you can leave Show/Hide in whichever state helps you work; another person can control their own view. If you want to send a polished copy, use Print Preview or export a PDF and inspect the result. If the goal is to remove comments or revision history, use Word’s review tools instead of Show/Hide. For example, comments can be deleted from the Review tab, while tracked changes need to be reviewed and accepted or rejected. Hiding their indicators does not erase the underlying review information.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I turn off paragraph marks in Word?
Select Home > ¶ Show/Hide, or press Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows and Command+8 on Mac. If paragraph marks remain, check the individual paragraph-mark display setting in Word’s view options.

Does hiding formatting marks change my document?
No. It changes what Word displays while you edit. Paragraphs, spaces, tabs, and formatting remain in the document unless you select and delete characters or use a command that changes formatting.

Why can I still see spaces as dots?
The option to always display spaces may be turned on. In Windows Word, check File > Options > Display and clear the spaces option under Always show these formatting marks on the screen.

How do I remove formatting from text instead of hiding marks?
Select the text and choose Home > Clear All Formatting. This affects formatting, not the display of nonprinting symbols. Paragraph spacing and other layout settings may need to be changed separately.

Do formatting marks print or appear in PDFs?
Ordinary paragraph, space, and tab indicators are editing aids and ordinarily do not print or appear in exported PDFs. Use Print Preview or inspect the PDF if you need to verify the final result, particularly when other review or hidden-content features are involved.

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