The space character is the most common formatting marks and is represented as a single dot in place of each space in a document. If you want to drop down a line, but not end a paragraph, press Shift+ Enter to create a line break in the paragraph. The paragraph continues until Enter is pressed again. By default, when pressing the Enter, Microsoft Word and most other programs create a new paragraph.

The paragraph mark or pilcrow follows any new paragraph in a document. To delete pagination breaks, move your cursor in front of the page break mark and press the Del. There is also a column and section break. Below, is a picture and an example of a page break mark. Pagination breaksĪ page break that is inserted manually into the document is shown when formatting marks are enabled. The same symbol is found on the Enter key on many computer keyboards. The image to the left shows that the line break resembles a symbol of an arrow pointing down and to the left. Line breaksĪ line break is a break in the current line of text that doesn't create a new paragraph and is often done using the shortcut Shift+ Enter. To create a new field code, press Ctrl+ F9, and to toggle the display of field codes, press Alt+ F9. For example, to display the updated current date in a document, use the field code. Field codeĪ field code is a command or code that instructs Microsoft Word to insert special items, such as the current date, current page number, or custom graphics. These look like a dash with a small line extending down on the right side (shown left). Conditional hyphenĪny hyphen not entered manually entered is shown as a conditional hyphen mark. Types of formatting marksīelow, is a list of the different formatting marks you'll see when enabled with a brief description.

Check the View drop-down menu (Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier) or the Home tab (Microsoft Word 2007 and later) for an option to display the formatting marks button. If the formatting marks button is not visible in your toolbar, you can change this setting. The formatting marks feature can also be enabled or disabled by clicking the paragraph symbol in the toolbar, as shown in the picture. With Microsoft programs that support formatting marks press the Ctrl+ * ( Ctrl+ Shift+ 8) shortcut key to enable and disable formatting marks.

Word formatting marks legend