Can I set display color of formatting marks?

[Guest]

Hi, I would like to change the color of the formatting marks. For example, if
the text I'me writting is black, I would Word to display the formatting marks
in a light grey. How can I proceed? Is it possible? Thanks

 

[Tony Jollans]

Nice idea but, as far as I know, not possible.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Except on a Mac, where I believe it is the default.

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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[Tony Jollans]

You learn something new each day! Why on earth would they design two
different interfaces and package them into two different environments like
that?

 

[Art in VT]

Hi Matthias,
In Word 2003, you can use the replace function of edit to replace all
the little space markers with gray space markers. Here's how:

Save your document first!

1) If the Formatting Marks are not showing, Click Show/Hide on the
Standard toolbar (Hint: To display a toolbar, press ALT and then
SHIFT+F10.).
2) On the standard toolbar, go to Edit, Select Replace, and click on
the "More" tab at the bottom of the "Find and Replace" window.
3) Click in the "Find what" box and type in a single space.
4) Click in the "Replace with" box and again type in a single space.
5) Click on "Options" box at the bottom of the "Find and Replace"
window and select "fonts".
6) In the "Replace Font" Window, select Font style Bold, Size 24, Font
Color Light Gray (or, if you would prefer, Red), and ensure that the
subscript and superscript boxes are cleared if checked or filled in.
(Add, modify, or omit steps here as needed to get the visibility
desired). Click OK
7) Back now in the "Find and Replace" window, select replace all.
8) Click "OK".
9) Close the "Find and Replace" window.


This could be made into a macro and added to the toolbar for use in
other documents.

You can use CTRL-C (copy) and CTRL-V (paste) to enter any other
non-printing formatting marks into the replace routine given above,
and they too could be made into macros (Macro to replace a Space Black
Dot with a Gray Dot, Macro to replace Pilcrow Sign with Green Pilcrow
Sign, etc.)

Hope this helps,
Art

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you change the size of the font (e.g change the space to 24 points) it
will completely screw up the formatting of the document?

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Art in VT]

You know, in all the excitement of finding a way to show the little
buggers I hadn't even considered that. Another "bug" with this method
is that if you insert a letter at the beginning of any given word, it
takes on the format of the previously replaced spaces.
This technique then only works to highlight the spaces, and should be
undone (edit, undo) before doing any revisions to the document (which
of course you saved already!).
Apologies for the oversight and many thanks for pointing out the
problem with this method.
Any suggestions for an effective way to display the formatting marks
without otherwise screwing up the document? I tried using the same
font size and using the double strikeout which helps preserve the
justification, but which leaves the problem with insertions taking on
the new formatting unresolved. Using a symbol and marking it hidden
also doesn't work since the space disappears when the markup does.
Thanks again for pointing out the snafu.
Art