Little Black Squares (Invisible)

[Poliwog]

Hello!

A fellow writer asked me this and I (gasp) didn't know the answer.
When I hit "Show Invisibles" (the paragraph symbol) in Word (2003 Win,
2004 Mac), I see stuff I recognize, such as paragraph, line breaks,
tabs, etc. I also see these little black squares. I have no idea what
they are. Help is much appreciated.

Les

 

[BoniM]

Paragraphs that have heading styles applied.

 

[Greg Maxey]

BoniM,

While that might appear the case it isn't completely accurate. That symbol
appears adjacent to paragraphs that are formatted with the "Keep with next,"
"Keep lines together," "Page break before," or "Suppress line numbers"
property. This includes most if not all the default Heading Styles. If you
remove those properties then the symbol does not apear adjacent to Heading
style paragraphs.

See:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

 

[Poliwog]

Hello!

Yes, this appears to be what I'm seeing. But..."Page Break
Before"!!!??? I must investigate this. Seems like exactly what I need
for my "Chapter Heading" style. Never knew about this. You can DO
that? Oooh! Must find out. Must write it into my tutorial.

Many thanks,
Les

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, "Page break before" is very handy. Two of the best reasons for using it
are (1) to eliminate shading on a manual page break before a shaded heading
and (2) to break a table without splitting it (so that repeating headings
still display). Now if only there were a "section break before" property...

Hello!

Yes, this appears to be what I'm seeing. But..."Page Break
Before"!!!??? I must investigate this. Seems like exactly what I need
for my "Chapter Heading" style. Never knew about this. You can DO
that? Oooh! Must find out. Must write it into my tutorial.

Many thanks,
Les

 

[BoniM]

Cool - good to know, one less thing I only think I know!!!

 

[BoniM]

Amen and Amen AND people can't 'accidently' delete 'em...

Yes, "Page break before" is very handy. Two of the best reasons for using it
are (1) to eliminate shading on a manual page break before a shaded heading
and (2) to break a table without splitting it (so that repeating headings
still display). Now if only there were a "section break before" property...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

OTOH, "Page break before" can be very puzzling to users who don't know of
its existence. They have a definite page break and no way to account for it
because Word doesn't display a manual page break.