You can learn more about formatting marks, including what each symbol means, in the CyberText Newsletter. With visible formatting marks, you can tell what is happening in your document at a glance. For example, uneven paragraph spacing could be caused by soft line breaks, section breaks or a style applied to a paragraph. Formatting marksįormatting marks may look like clutter if you aren’t used to them, but they hold a lot of useful information.
All of the options for showing formatting and styles will only show up on your screen-they will not affect the printed version of a document. The instructions below are for Microsoft Word for Mac, version 16. The tips in this post are all ways to show hidden formatting in Word, which can help you diagnose problems when text doesn’t look right or won’t go where you want it to. So for all you other Mac users out there, here are a few translations.
Unfortunately for me and my MacBook, CyberText’s tips are all written for Windows users. Her blog is a great resource for shortcuts, formatting tips and other useful features. One of my favorite sessions this year was presented by Rhonda Bracey of CyberText Consulting, who shared time-saving tips for Microsoft Word. I recently had the opportunity to attend the 22nd national conference of ACES: The Society for Editing.
