A Guide to Non-Printing Characters in Google Docs and How to View Them

In most word processors like Google Docs, you have printing and non-printing characters. Printing characters are visible, like your text and numbers, and you can easily identify them in a document. On the other hand, non-printing characters are typically formatting features used to manage the layout of a document. Hence, the reason why non-printing characters are often not visible.

However, with the new Google Docs update, users can view non-printing characters in their documents. If you want to know the features in Google Docs that count as non-printing characters and how you can view these non-printing characters in your document, read below:

The 7 Non-Printing Characters in Google Docs

Google Docs has seven (7) non-printing characters, and users are familiar with most of them. They include:

Paragraph / Hard Break

To show the division between bodies of text, a single line space and/or an indentation called a paragraph is often used. Starting a paragraph in Google Docs is similar to what you would do for other processors. Here’s how:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas.

Step 3: To start a new paragraph, hit the Enter key on your keyboard for a hard paragraph return.

Step 4: If you want to include a space between paragraphs, highlight the paragraphs.

Step 5: Click the Format tab on the Google Docs Ribbon.

Step 6: Click the Line & paragraph spacing option.

Step 7: Click ‘Add space before paragraph’ and ‘Add space after paragraph.’ This will add a white space before and after the selected paragraphs.

Line / Soft Break

In a paragraph, you can have multiple lines of text. Users can adjust the spacing between these lines. Here’s how:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can also launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas.

Step 3: To adjust the space between lines of text in the document, highlight the text.

Step 4: Click the Format tab on the Google Docs Ribbon.

Step 5: Click the Line & paragraph spacing option.

Step 6: Choose from the following options to set your line spacing:

• Single
• 1.15
• 1.5
• Double
• Custom spacing

Section Break

A section break allows you to split a document into different parts. For example, if you are trying to create chapters in a document, you can use a section break. Here’s how to do so in Google Docs:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can also launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas.

Step 3: To introduce a section break in the document, select where you want a new section to begin.

Step 4: Click the Insert tab on the Google Docs Ribbon.

Step 5: Click the Break option.

Step 6: Select either of the below options:

• Section break (next page): start the new section on the next page
• Section break (continuous): start the new section on the same page

Page Break

A page break is a marker that ends an active page and starts a new one. For example, if you are trying to separate your title page from the table of contents. Here’s how to do so in Google Docs:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas.

Step 3: To introduce a section break in the document, select where you want a new page to begin.

Step 4: Click the Insert tab on the Google Docs Ribbon.

Step 5: Click the Break option.

Step 6: Select Page break.

Column Break

If you have text in your Google Docs file arranged in columns (similar to newspaper layouts), you can use a column break to control how the text flows. Here’s how to do so in Google Docs:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas with the Column format.

Step 3: To introduce a column break in the document, select where you want the column break to begin.

Step 4: Click the Insert tab on the Google Docs Ribbon.

Step 5: Click the Break option.

Step 6: Select Column break.

Tab

A tab in Google Docs allows you to add horizontal space in the middle of a line that contains text or numbers. Here’s how to do so:

Step 1: On your preferred web browser, open the Google Docs file. If you have the Google Docs app, you can launch it and open your document.

Step 2: Type in your text on the Google Docs canvas.

Step 3: To introduce a tab, place your cursor where you want the tab, then tap the Tab key on your keyboard.

As you hit the Tab key, the text after the cursor steadily moves to the right.

Space

The space tool allows you to introduce a gap between text, words, or numbers in Google Docs. All you need to do is tab the space bar on your keyboard.

How to View the Non-Printing Characters in Google Docs

Now that you know what the non-printing characters in Google Docs are and how to access them, here’s how to make them visible. By displaying the non-printing characters, it allows you see how your document is laid out and make further adjustments.

Step 1: On the Google Docs Ribbon, click the View tab.

Step 2: From the View tab, select Show non-printing characters.

If your document has the non-printing characters we explained above, you should see symbols or markers highlighting them.

Using Google Docs Like a Pro

Getting familiar with the non-printing characters in Google Docs is one of the ways to ensure you have a well-formatted document. However, to become a Google Docs pro user, there are other tricks you need to learn.