3 Quick Ways to Turn Off Paragraph Symbols in Microsoft Word

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Get rid of the paragraph sign at the end of every sentence

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Last Updated: February 2, 2026

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• Using the Toggle Button
|
• Disabling in Options (Windows)
|
• Disabling in Preferences (Mac)
|
• Video

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Microsoft Word has a button for turning paragraph symbols on and off, which looks like this ¶. It can be helpful to have the paragraph symbols turned on (like if you need to delete a page break, but you can’t tell exactly where the markup is). However, having the paragraph symbols on while typing can also be distracting. Here's how to turn off paragraph symbols in Microsoft Word using your Windows or Mac computer.

Quick Steps

1. Click the Home tab.
2. Find the Show/Hide Formatting Marks icon in the Paragraph section.
3. Click the Show/Hide Formatting Marks icon.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Using the Toggle Button

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1. 
   1
   Go to the "Home" tab or main tool bar. This depends on which version of Word you are using. In newer versions of Word, the "Show/Hide Formatting Marks" button is located under the “Home” tab in the “Paragraph” section of the toolbar. In older versions of Word however, the button should be on the main toolbar.
2. 
   2
   Click on the ¶ "Show/Hide" button to remove the paragraph symbols. Once you have found the ¶ button, all you need to do is click on it, and the paragraph symbols will be turned off. To turn them back on at a later point, click on the ¶ button again.

   • The "Show/Hide Formatting Marks" button looks like a paragraph mark (¶). Generally, it is located in the upper right-hand corner of the “Paragraph” section of the toolbar.
     • In Word for Mac, the toolbar sections aren’t labeled. However, you can find this button in roughly the middle of the toolbar, just to the left of the Styles presets.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Disabling in Options (Windows)

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1. 
   1
   Click File, and then click Options. Sometimes, only certain formatting marks are set to show up in the document, which means the Show/Hide formatting marks button may not work.

   • If you turn off paragraph symbols this way, you should still be able to toggle them on and off with the ¶ button. This method will just prevent them from showing up automatically in your documents.
2. 
   2
   Click Display. You'll see a section marked "Always show these formatting marks on the screen."
3. 
   3
   Uncheck the box for “paragraph marks”. At this point you can also turn off any other formatting marks you want to remove, like spaces, hidden text, and object anchors.
4. 
   4
   Click OK at the bottom of the window. The paragraph marks will no longer appear automatically in any of your documents.
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Disabling in Preferences (Mac)

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1. 1
   Click Word, and then Preferences. You'll find this in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

   • Use this method to disable the paragraph symbols in Microsoft Word if the ¶ button doesn’t work.
   • You can still toggle paragraph marks on and off using the ¶ button. This method will just prevent them from showing up automatically in your documents.
2. 2
   Click View. A new window will open.
3. 3
   Uncheck the box for "Paragraph marks". It’s under the Show Non-Printing Characters header. You can also uncheck any other formatting marks you may want to remove, such as hidden text, tab characters, spaces, etc.
4. 4
   Click OK. The paragraph marks will no longer appear automatically in any of your documents.
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