# Seeing the characters you cannot see

**Category:** [String Manager](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/strings)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## Why it is needed

A trailing space, a non-breaking space where an ordinary one was meant, a soft line break where a hard one was meant — these look identical on screen and behave differently in a product. They are also exactly what gets pasted in by accident from a document or a spreadsheet.

The worst of them are the ones with no width at all. A zero-width space inside a key is why a key that looks identical to another one does not match it, and no amount of staring at the screen will show you that.

## Turning it on

Use **Show hidden characters** on a string. It applies to the value as you read it and to the editor as you type, and it stays on as you move between strings.
CharacterShown as
Space`·`
Non-breaking space`°`, highlighted
Tab`→`
Hard line break`¶` — hover it to see whether it is CRLF, CR or LF
Line separator (U+2028)`↵`
Paragraph separator (U+2029)`¶`
Zero-width space, zero-width joiner and non-joiner, byte-order marka highlighted marker — hover it for which one

## The summary line

The markers are deliberately small, so a count is shown beneath the value: "3 non-breaking spaces, 1 zero-width space" is the part somebody acts on. Ordinary spaces are left out of it — every string has those, and listing them buries everything else.

All of this is display only. Nothing is added to the string, the stored value still holds exactly what was typed, and copying copies the real characters.

## The value box

The box holding the value sizes to the string in it. A short string no longer sits in a tall empty panel, which was making leading and trailing whitespace impossible to judge by eye.

---

## Related Articles

- [API, webhooks, and automation](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/string-manager-integrations)
- [Platform keys: one string, the name each build expects](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/string-manager-platform-keys)
- [Download the file you uploaded, with the values changed](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/string-manager-template-export)
- [Find: duplicates, old terms, blocked words and tone](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/string-manager-find-duplicates)
- [Placeholders, and why they are stored separately](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/string-manager-placeholders)

---
[← Back to TotalCtrl Help Center](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/)