Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 24, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Word has a text attribute that has been around since the early days of Word for DOS. Hidden text is an attribute that allows you to enter information that you can easily suppress. You can turn it off so it does not appear on the screen, or you can turn it off, so it doesn't print. To format text as hidden, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Font tab of the Font dialog box.
Hidden text shows on the screen with a dotted underline. Unfortunately, this is easy to miss as you are reading the document on the screen, so it is a good idea to use a text color to highlight your hidden text. For instance, it could be green as well as hidden. In this way, your notes and messages are much harder to miss. You can even define a character or paragraph style that has the hidden attribute set, along with the color attribute to make the text more noticeable.
You can control whether hidden text is displayed or printed by following these steps:
Figure 2. The Display options of the Word Options dialog box.
You should note that since there are two separate controls for Hidden text—one for screen display and one for printing. This means that you can control display and printing of the text independently from each other.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8056) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Using Non-Printing Notes.
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2020-04-24 18:56:00
Cindy
Many thanks! This was exactly what I was looking for and it works perfectly in 2019. I appreciate you taking the time for clarity on newer versions.
2019-08-24 11:17:49
Edward Hill
Follow up on hidden notes. It seems that hidden notes is a good way for me to create a record of the reason for a provision being in or out of a document. Is it possible for a recipient to reverse the hiding process and see the text of the notes? How can that result be avoided?
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