How to Show/Hide Hidden Text in Writer?

RJO · July 30, 2022, 1:46am

I’m trying to migrate from MS Word to LibreOffice and have hit a serious snag – it looks like a problem/bug that’s been noted for maybe five years but is still present. I don’t know if there’s any way around it, but all I can think to do is ask in case I’ve missed something.

How do I toggle hidden text visible/hidden? The Toggle Formatting Marks button (¶) in the main toolbar should do it – that’s the standard in MS Word and has been for years – but it doesn’t work in Writer.

Many people use the hidden text feature in Word extensively – it’s a standard tool in professional documents for storing notes, alternate wordings, instructions, and more. Obviously Writer has the hidden text feature (Format > Character), but there doesn’t appear to be a toggle to display/hide it. What’s the solution? (Apart from going back to MS Word, which I hope I won’t have to do.)

Thanks!

LibreOffice 7.3.4.2
Mac laptop OS X 10.12

Hrbrgr · July 30, 2022, 4:44am

… for storing notes, alternate wordings, instructions, and more.

In Writer you can use comments for this ( Insert>Comment menu; Ctrl+Alt+C )

mikekaganski · July 30, 2022, 5:04am

RJO · July 31, 2022, 2:15am

Holy moly, I never would have found that in a million years. Thank you!

For anyone still looking, that panel is under:
LibreOffice > Preferences > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids

If you check “Hidden characters” under the “Display formatting” header, the Toggle Formatting Marks button (¶) on the main toolbar will function as it does in MS Word, toggling hidden text (and other invisible marks) on and off.

That should absolutely be the default setting in LibreOffice. It should not be unchecked when you download a new installation.

I was just about to give up and renew my MS Word subscription. Maybe now I won’t have to. (And why this comment isn’t displaying in normal paragraphs I don’t know.)

robleyd · July 31, 2022, 2:42am

True if you are using a Mac, otherwise it will be as shown, Tools | Options | LibreOffice Writer | Formatting Aids

EarnestAl · July 31, 2022, 5:31am

Just so that you are aware, Hidden characters is not the only way to hide text in LibreOffice. Sections can be hidden and not revealed by the setting in Options, however their existence is shown in Navigator. Visibility is triggered by a variable field so typically would be used for mail merge type operations, see Section

mikekaganski · July 31, 2022, 5:56am

Open the help: https://help.libreoffice.org/ or F1
Start typing hidden in the Index search box:

image1001×719 221 KB
One of the entries (hidden text -- showing (Writer)) is what you need.

Using help is underrated.

RJO · July 31, 2022, 6:10am

I of course checked the Help system, both within the application and online. None of what you posted appears there in my version, only irrelevant material about variables and scripting.

mikekaganski · July 31, 2022, 6:12am

Did you pay attention to my wording:

(I hoped that at least the screenshot could help avoiding confusion…)

Hrbrgr · July 31, 2022, 6:26am

Something off topic

First of all a big thank you to @mikekaganski ,
I did not know the presented solution so far.

Now for the help. I also searched in the help, according to the screenshot of @mikekaganski .
To this theme here is IMHO nothing to find there.
It’s all descriptions of how to hide text with conditions.

Since I like this solution very much I put it in writing:

Hide Text in Writer

mikekaganski · July 31, 2022, 6:43am

@ohallot please see if tdf#150205 makes sense.

Formatting Aids is on the page I described. Why isn’t it relevant?

@ohallot btw, the page could benefit from a screenshot at the top, to help user see an overview of the following wall of text

Hrbrgr · July 31, 2022, 6:57am

@mikekaganski , yes it has a relevance, you are right.
But the description seems a bit spartan to me, sorry.

To my apology, I must add that I was looking on the German side.
In German, however, there are several terms for example for “Hide”, such as “verstecken”, “verbergen” , “ausblenden”.

mikekaganski · July 31, 2022, 7:49am

I would expect user to use the same term that is used in character properties, which effect they intend to undo.

However, indeed the terms in the bookmarks of the page can be augmented.

3rdRockStephen · January 21, 2024, 7:06pm

Yay! That’s solved my prob (how to reveal hidden text).

TXDon · July 30, 2022, 3:12am

This might not be as easy as you would like, but you can give it a try and see if it fits your needs.

Create a paragraph style called Hide_Reveal.
In the Font Effects tab is a check box for Hidden.
Check this box.

Type some text in the document and apply this paragraph style
When you want to reveal the text with this paragraph style, just modify the style by unchecking the Hidden check box.

When I tried this with a character style, however, I discovered that it did not work as expected.

I did this using LOW 7.2 on a Windows 11 machine.

Hrbrgr · July 30, 2022, 4:46am

I have tryed character style, it works.

Version: 7.3.5.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 184fe81b8c8c30d8b5082578aee2fed2ea847c01
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL

TXDon · July 31, 2022, 4:12pm

The character style is now working for me as well. I’m not sure why I had a problem when I first tried it.