Google is including a function to Google Docs that allows you to see non-printing characters comparable to areas, tabs, and numerous sorts of breaks, the corporate introduced in a weblog submit on Monday. The choice, which will probably be obtainable within the View menu, might help make enhancing a doc simpler by exhibiting you precisely how its formatted slightly than making you rely purely on what you possibly can see to inform whether or not one thing is a tab or a bunch of areas. It can be extra useful when troubleshooting tousled formatting.
Prior to now, folks have needed to depend on third-party add-ons for Google Docs to see the non-printing characters. Whereas it’s not a function that many individuals may have a lot use for (extra on that in a second), there was undoubtedly demand for it. A request on Google’s IssueTracker acquired over 80 votes from folks saying they have been impacted by the shortcoming to see the characters. Some additionally left impassioned feedback: “My workforce agrees that it is a main challenge with google docs,” wrote one consumer in 2019, whereas somebody requested “How has this not been made obtainable but??” lower than per week in the past.
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On the opposite aspect of the coin, I, and several other of my colleagues, have been stunned to listen to that the app didn’t have this function till now. Apparently, none of us had ever come throughout the necessity for it or thought to test for it — and sure, that does appear a bit odd looking back, on condition that we’re all writers, however I assume we simply assumed it was there.
I used to be additionally stunned that Google Docs didn’t have it on condition that I keep in mind studying about non-printing characters in an elementary faculty laptop class; Microsoft Phrase has been capable of present them for just about your entire time I’ve been alive. (One in all my co-workers recalled that his dad and mom had the function on when he was rising up, which made him suppose that was simply how digital paperwork labored.)
Nonetheless, the addition is healthier late than by no means, and I’m positive there are some Google Docs customers which can be very excited by this announcement. In accordance with the weblog submit, the function will probably be obtainable to all enterprise, academic, and private accounts, and must be totally rolled out by February seventh.
