Feb 15 How to Use the Reveal Formatting Feature in Word 2010

Are you accustomed to Reveal Codes features in WordPerfect? Then you must be acknowledged with it that these codes show you your text with integrated formatting codes that looks pretty similar to HTML formatting. But in case you are a continuous user of Word, you must have known to it that Word do not possess any such function.

If we talk about WordPerfect, it treats text and formatting codes alike, placing start and end codes around text as you when you format it. When you display the Reveal Codes window, you see the formatting code markers integrated with the text. You have an option to select, insert and delete the code markers manually. Like if you manually delete an end code the rest of the document will be formatted according to the start code.

However if we consider in Word, text and formatting are treated completely independently. Word stocks up the formatting for the text in a different part of the file than the text to which the formatting applies. Word does not keep on inserting words in your text stream. Instead of it Word tracks the character and paragraph formatting you apply throughout your document and also it concern with the start and end codes.

Whereas WordPerfect has both modes simultaneously WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) and also the Reveal Codes, but Word only has the WYSIWYG mode. You apply bold to some text and you witness that text as bold. You cannot observer the bold codes around your text.

On the other hand there is a way to experience how selected text is formatted. As discussed above, Word do not show you start and end codes like WordPerfect because it does not use them, but as when you select any text in Word and press Shift+ F1, the Reveal Formatting pane start displaying. Word shows off, in list format, that how the selected text is formatted with respect to the Paragraph, Font and Section.

If you wish to change the formatting of any text then you can do it by using the Reveal Formatting pane. Like, if you want to make the selected text italic instead of bold, click the Font link in the Reveal Formatting pane.

Afterwards the Font dialog box appears through which you can make any changes and then click OK. The text reflects the change as does the Reveal Formatting pane.

Don’t get confuse among the Reveal Formatting pane and the feature in Word that shows hidden formatting symbols. If you click Paragraph symbol in the Paragraph Section of Home tab, some hidden symbols will appear like spaces, tabs, and paragraph marks. These are much different than the formatting listed on the Reveal Formatting pane.

NOTE:Pressing Ctrl + * will show and hide the formatting symbols.

You might want to show both the Reveal Formatting pane and the hidden formatting symbols to easily track your formatting and the spacing between words and paragraphs and tabs.