Hidden character glossary

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Learn the definitions for all nonprinting characters displayed when you show hidden characters in Adobe InDesign.

Hidden characters are nonprinting symbols visible only in the InDesign document window and Story Editor. They don’t print or export. To display them, select Type > Show Hidden Characters and make sure you’re in Normal screen mode with Overprint Preview turned off.

Character reference table

Character	What it represents	What it does
¶	End of Paragraph	Marks where you pressed Enter or Return to create a new paragraph
↵	Soft return (line break)	Marks where you pressed Shift + Enter or Shift + Return to break a line without starting a new paragraph
·	Space	Standard space created by pressing the Spacebar
	End of Story	Marks the end of all text in a threaded text frame sequence
	Discretionary Hyphen	Shows where a word can break with a hyphen if it falls at the end of a line
	Nonbreaking Hyphen	Prevents a hyphenated word or phrase from breaking across lines
»	Tab	Marks where you pressed the Tab key
	Right Indent Tab	Special tab that pushes text to the right edge of the text frame
	Indent to Here	Marks the position where subsequent lines in the paragraph indent
	End Nested Style Here	Controls where a nested style stops applying and the next style begins
	Non-joiner	Prevents ligatures or other character combinations from forming
	Ideographic Space	Inserts a full-width space used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean typography
	Em Space	Inserts a fixed-width space equal to the current point size
	En Space	Inserts a fixed-width space equal to half the current point size
	Nonbreaking Space	Prevents line breaks between two words or characters
	Nonbreaking Space (Fixed Width)	Inserts a nonbreaking space that doesn't expand during justification
	Hair Space	Inserts a very thin space, typically 1/24 em
	Sixth Space	Inserts a fixed space equal to 1/6 em
	Thin Space	Inserts a narrow fixed space, typically 1/8 em
	Quarter Space	Inserts a fixed space equal to 1/4 em
	Third Space	Inserts a fixed space equal to 1/3 em
	Punctuation Space	Inserts a space equal to the width of a period in the current font
	Figure Space	Inserts a space equal to the width of a numeral in the current font
	Flush Space	Inserts a variable space used in justified text to fill the last line
	Column Break	Forces text to continue in the next column
	Frame Break	Forces text to continue in the next threaded frame
	Page Break	Forces text to continue on the next page
	Odd Page Break	Forces text to continue on the next odd-numbered page
	Even Page Break	Forces text to continue on the next even-numbered page
	Forced Line Break	Creates a line break that responds to paragraph alignment settings

Special markers and indicators

Character	What it represents	What it does
	InCopy Note	Marks the location of an editorial note in InCopy workflows
	InCopy Note (Story Editor)	Displays InCopy notes in Story Editor view
	Position marker	Marks object position in InCopy (InCopy only)
	Index marker	Shows where an index entry is anchored
	Index marker (Story Editor)	Displays index entries in Story Editor view
	Hidden conditional text	Indicates text hidden by conditional text settings
	Hidden conditional text (Story Editor)	Shows hidden conditional text in Story Editor
	Bookmark or hyperlink destination marker	Marks text anchor points for navigation
	Bookmark or hyperlink destination marker (Story Editor)	Displays anchors in Story Editor view
	Hyperlink destination (Story Editor)	Shows hyperlink destinations in Story Editor
	Cross-referenced paragraph	Indicates a paragraph referenced elsewhere in the document
	Cross-reference hyperlink (Story Editor)	Displays cross-reference links in Story Editor
	Anchored object	Marks the position of an inline or anchored object
	Anchored object (Story Editor)	Shows anchored objects in Story Editor view
	XML Tag	Displays opening and closing XML tags when the XML structure is applied
	XML Tag (Story Editor)	Shows XML tags in Story Editor view
	Footnote (Story Editor)	Indicates footnote reference points in Story Editor
	Table (Story Editor)	Represents an entire table in Story Editor view
	Variable (Story Editor)	Shows text variables like running headers or page numbers in Story Editor
	Index Marker (Story Editor)	Represents an alternative display for index entries in Story Editor