How to Show Invisibles & Formatting Marks in Google Docs

A step-by-step guide to reveal hidden formatting characters and line breaks in Google Docs

Co-authored by Darlene Antonelli, MA Reviewed by Stan Kats

Last Updated: July 31, 2023

Do you need to see hidden formatting characters in Google Docs? You can easily show line breaks, paragraph markers, carriage returns, and other invisible formatting symbols by selecting "Show non-printing characters" from the View menu.^{[1]
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Research source}! This wikiHow article teaches you how to show invisible characters in Google Docs.

Things You Should Know

To show invisible characters, click the "View" tab and select "Show non-printing characters."
You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P (PC) or Cmd + Shift + P (Mac).
Showing non-printing characters displays hidden paragraph markers, page breaks, section breaks, line breaks, column breaks, tabs, and spaces.

Steps

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Go to https://docs.google.com/document and log in. You can only see invisible characters when using Google Docs in a web browser on your computer. This won't work in the mobile app.
Click the multicolored plus sign to create a new document, or click one you already have to open.

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It's at the top of your document.
4
Click Show non-printing characters. Alternatively, press Ctrl + Shift + P (PC) or Cmd + Shift + P (Mac) to instantly show hidden paragraph markers, line breaks, section breaks, column breaks, tabs, and spaces.^{[2]
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Research source}
- To hide these characters again, return to View and select Show non-printing characters or press the keyboard shortcut again.

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Tips

Invisible markup characters will not appear when you print, even when you make them visible in Google Docs.

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To add a page break in Google Docs, press Ctrl + Enter (PC) or Cmd + Enter (Mac).

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