Replacing Word's non-breaking space

After all these years, I had finally become motivated enough to want to find out just what that little degree symbol meant when Word formatting was toggled on, and whether I needed it. And what I mean is text like this:

with a°50%°SS on one question

This is the degree symbol, which appears to have no other 'official' name (Waddingham, 2014), though apparently it was once called a "gradus" in Latin referring to steps, having many technical and scientific uses, such as temperature, angles, co-ordinates (Symbol Wiki, 2025; Webb, 2018). It is also a 'glyph' not a diacritical, from the Greek, 'carving' (Webb, 2018): what we also know as a pictogram. 

What I didn't realise is that the degree symbol which shows when Word formatting is toggled on is equivalent to " " in html: a non-breaking space (Certent Help, 2021). IT Trip says that "A standard space (ASCII code 32) tells Word that it’s okay to move to a new line at that point if needed. A nonbreaking space (ASCII code 160), on the other hand, instructs Word to keep the adjacent text together on one line" (2025). When we "notice a tiny circle in place of a regular space" because we have toggled on the Pilcrow (¶), we are seeing "a nonbreaking space. The symbol typically looks like a degree sign (°), and if [we] try to delete it as if it were standard text, it can behave unpredictably" (IT Trip, 2025). That is because the non-breaking space often joins things together that it does not make sense for them to be split up, such as a title and a name, an ellipsis, or large, formatted numbers (e.g. Sir Graham Henry; ...; $5 billion). 

If we end up with funny clumps of text that will not break over a line, we can fix it. We simply use find and replace. So, to find and replace non-breaking spaces, which shows as a degree symbol when Word formatting has been toggled on, we simply: 

1. highlight the text we want to replace the non-breaking spaces
2. open Word's Find and Replace box (Ctrl & H), then 
3. key ^s (caret, lower case s) into the "Find what" box
4. key one tap of the spacebar into the "Replace with" box
5. Click the Replace All button

We have now replaced all non-breaking spaces with standard spaces.

However, if we want to key a degree sign on our keyboard, we hold the Alt key down and key 0176. We get a °. 

And finally, if we want to add a non-breaking space in Word we simply highlight the standard space we want to replace with a non-breaking space, and key Ctrl, Shift and Spacebar (Wright, 2025).

I think that covers it!

Sam

References:

Certent Help. (2021). Non-breaking space. https://dm.certent.com/help/Content/D_Draft/Format/nonbreaking_space.htm

IT Trip. (2025, April 10). How to Remove or Replace Nonbreaking Spaces in Word for Perfect Document Formatting. https://en.ittrip.xyz/ms-office/word/remove-nonbreaking-space

Symbol Wiki. (2025). Degree Sign Symbol °. https://symbolwiki.com/en/degree-sign

Waddingham, A. (Ed.) (2014). New Hart's Rules: The Oxford style guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Webb, S. (2018). Clash of Symbols: A Ride Through the Riches of Glyphs. Springer International Publishing AG.

Wright, E. (2025). How to Insert Nonbreaking Spaces in Microsoft Word. https://erinwrightwriting.com/how-to-insert-nonbreaking-spaces-in-microsoft-word/