Detecting Hidden Text in Word 2007

[Michael Moore]

Working with a .doc file in Word 2007 I've encountered a problem where there
was a hidden carriage return between paragraphs. In Word 2003 you could do a
select all go to Fonts and see that the Hidden Text check box is filled. In
Word 2007 the check box does not fill unless it's only the hidden text that
is selected. Also the hidden text would appear gray shaded when highlighted.

The Document Inspector does indicate that there is hidden text present but
in some cases it needs to be edited not removed. And of course changing the
view options to display hidden text also reveals the text with ... under the
words. Unfortunately, in the case above where the hidden text is only a
carriage return the paragraph symbol does not have the ... under it so there
is no way to find it without comparing the document with hidden text viewable
then not (or printing it out for a comparison).

Anyone else run into this? Have these hidden text indicators been changed in
2007 to reduce the ability to detect hidden text or is this possibly a bug
issue?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Use the Find dialog.

First display nonprinting text (Ctrl+Shift+8 or click the ¶ button in
the Home ribbon). Open the Find dialog. Leave the Find What box empty,
but press Ctrl+Shift+H to set it to look for any Hidden text. Click
the Find Next button to step through the document one occurrence at a
time, or click the Reading Highlight button and select Highlight All
to apply highlighting.

By the way, I don't see what you say you're seeing. If I select a
mixture of hidden and nonhidden text, regardless of whether the hidden
text is made visible, and then right-click and select Font, the Hidden
box contains a green square to indicate the mixed setting, just like
in 2003. Also, in 2003 when displayed hidden text is selected along
with nonhidden text, the whole thing has a black highlight -- there is
no gray shading; the only difference is that the highlight in 2007 is
blue instead of black. And paragraph marks that are hidden don't have
the dotted underline in 2003, either.

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:45:01 -0700, Michael Moore <Michael