Member Avatar for Pegster9

I want to PRINT the formatting marks (space, paragraph, soft return). I can view on the marks in my document on screen, but they do not print.

I have been to TOOLS, OPTIONS, and VIEW tab, selected ALL under formatting marks this enable viewing. But when I go to PRINT tab, I've tried everything under Include With Document (and it prints me a report page).

I've seen the marks printed from other sources. There must be a way to print the marks.

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Dani AI

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and were right that Word 2003’s visible formatting symbols (the Show/Hide display) are screen-only and don’t print directly. That limitation is why you saw examples elsewhere but could not print them from Tools > Options. There are, however, practical workarounds that produce printable markers without guessing at third‑party tools.

Simplest (no macros): work on a saved copy, then use Edit > Replace (Ctrl+H) and the special codes. Example replacements you can run with Replace All (use the Special menu or type the codes shown):

  • Find: ^p Replace with: <P>^p (adds a printable <P> at each paragraph end)
  • Find: ^l Replace with: <BR>^l (marks manual line breaks)
  • Find: ^t Replace with: <TAB> (marks tabs)
  • Find: (two spaces) Replace with: <SP> (marks double spaces)
    Also search for " ^p" (space + ^p) and replace with "<TRAIL>^p" to flag trailing spaces. Do this on a copy so layout/content is preserved; after printing you can close the copy without saving or Undo if you prefer.

Macro (one click on a temporary copy): this VBA saves a copy, inserts ASCII markers, prints the copy, and then removes it. Paste into the VB editor (Alt+F11) and run on the document you want to check.

Sub PrintWithFormattingMarkers()
  Dim tempPath As String
  Dim docCopy As Document
  tempPath = Environ("TEMP") & "\print_marks.doc"
  ActiveDocument.SaveCopyAs tempPath
  Set docCopy = Documents.Open(FileName:=tempPath, AddToRecentFiles:=False)

  With docCopy.Content.Find
    .ClearFormatting: .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Text = "^p": .Replacement.Text = "<P>^p"
    .Forward = True: .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With

  With docCopy.Content.Find
    .Text = "^l": .Replacement.Text = "<BR>^l"
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With

  With docCopy.Content.Find
    .Text = "^t": .Replacement.Text = "<TAB>"
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With

  With docCopy.Content.Find
    .Text = "  ": .Replacement.Text = " <SP> "
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With

  docCopy.PrintOut
  docCopy.Close SaveChanges:=False
  On Error Resume Next: Kill tempPath: On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

Notes and cautions: always work on a saved copy, test on small documents first, and remember macro security settings in Word 2003. These approaches convert the visual symbols into real, printable characters so you can produce a hard copy that documents spaces, paragraph marks and manual breaks.

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Member Avatar for WASDted

I wish I could tell how to do it but it simply is not possible on MS Word. See this article in PC Mag. Basically you will have to type in the characters that represent the formatting marks as text so they will print. You can use CHARMAP to discover figure out the character codes and paste them in. Good luck!

Edited by WASDted because: n/a
Member Avatar for Pegster9

I wish I could tell how to do it but it simply is not possible on MS Word. See this article in PC Mag. Basically you will have to type in the characters that represent the formatting marks as text so they will print. You can use CHARMAP to discover figure out the character codes and paste them in. Good luck!

I read the article you attached. It looks like there is no way to print the formatting marks like I thought. Thank you for your reply!

Member Avatar for WASDted

you are welcome. please go ahead and mark it "solved"

Edited by WASDted because: n/a
Member Avatar for Pegster9

you are welcome. please go ahead and mark it "solved"

marked as solved!

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