Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 19, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
If you use the Show/Hide tool on the Formatting toolbar, you can alternatively show or hide marks that indicate the location of non-printing characters in your document. You can also control display of the markings individually by using controls on the View tab of the Options dialog box.
While the marks may be disconcerting at first, once you are used to them, they are a great boon to efficiently editing a document. In some situations you may have a need to print your document with the marks visible. For instance, if you teach a class in how to use Word, printing a document with the show/hide marks visible would help to explain to students why their documents don't look exactly as they want them to. Unfortunately, Word doesn't provide a way for you to do this.
One obvious workaround is to capture graphic representations of the screen. When you are looking at a particular portion of the document that you want to print, pressing the PrintScreen key places a screen shot on the Clipboard. You can then switch to a new document and press Ctrl+V to paste the captured screen into the new document. The drawback to this approach, of course, is that you can only print your document one screen at a time.
Another solution is to replace the non-printing characters with characters that will print. The following table shows what you should search for and what you should replace with in order to get the desired results.
Character | Search For | Replace With | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Tab | ^t | 2192, Alt+X | ||
Spaces | (space) | Alt+0183 | ||
Paragraph Marks | ^p | Alt+0182^p | ||
Optional Hyphens | ^- | Alt+0172 |
When entering what you are searching for, a combination such as Alt+0182 means to hold down the Alt key as you type 0182 on the numeric keypad. The combination 2192, Alt+X means to type the numbers 2192 then immediately press Alt+X.
Now you can print the document and the marks are visible on the printout. The only drawback is that since the replacement characters have horizontal width, the pagination of your document will not be the same as it was before you did the replacements. In addition, replacing spaces with the small dot (Alt+0183) means that Word won't know where to break lines; it sees absolutely no spaces between words.
If this approach produces satisfactory results for your needs, you can always record the multiple search and replace steps into a single macro that can be run at any time.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3789) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Printing Show/Hide Characters.
Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!
You can save on paper on your printouts by instructing Word to print multiple pages on a single sheet of paper. In fact, ...
Discover MoreYour laser printer probably does a great job in putting black type on the paper. If you want to print gray tones, the ...
Discover MoreYou may want to use a macro to process and then print your document. Part of that printing may involve specifying which ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments