Present on most office software, non-printing characters are coming in force in Google’s online applications.
Google Docs may be one of the most widely used word processors on the planet, but some much-used business features are still inexplicably missing.
A crying lack of Google Docs compared to Word and many other word processors
Google’s famous web software does not, for example, include non-printable characters. If you only use a word processor to write a letter on very rare occasions, you have probably never seen or heard of these characters.
However, these are widely used by writing professionals. As the name suggests, these signs are not printed or embedded in the document, but allow users to manage the layout of their document more easily.
These characters include line breaks, paragraph marks, and tabs, and give writers a full view of their document before formatting it more precisely.
Non-printable characters will be available from February
Unprintable characters are one of the most requested features on Google Docs, and many users were unaware that the search engine did not already offer this option available on Word for a long time already.
In 2019, Google offered its users the opportunity to give their opinion on the addition of these characters, and nearly 80 people requested their integration. Four years later, the American company finally accedes to the wish of part of its community.
To display non-printable characters, simply click on the “View” menu, then on “Show non-printable characters”. The addition is not yet effective and you will have to wait a few more days for the option to come. Google also indicates that the deployment will begin from next January 23 and should last fifteen days in total to be finalized on all user accounts.
Source : The Verge
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