Working With Hidden Text in Word Documents

The hidden text feature in Microsoft Word allows you to hide text in a document. The text remains a part of the document, but it doesn’t appear unless you choose to display it.

Combined with printing options, this feature can be handy for several reasons. The most obvious is that you can print two or more versions of a document from one file. In one, you can omit portions of text by hiding them. There's no need to save two copies on your computer.

To hide text in a Microsoft Word document on a Windows computer:

1. Highlight the portion of text that you want to hide in the Word document.
2. Right-click the highlighted text and select Font.
3. In the Effects section, check the box next to Hidden.
4. Click OK.

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A to highlight all the text in the Word document.
2. Right-click anywhere on the highlighted text.
3. Select Font.
4. In the Effects section, click the box next to Hidden to remove the check mark.
5. Click OK.

You can print the document with or without the hidden text.

1. Click File > Options.
2. Select Display in the Word Options screen.
3. In the Printing options section, place a check in the box next to Print hidden text to print out the document including the hidden text.
4. Click OK.

Remove the check to print the document without including the hidden text.