---
title: Why does my submission PDF look different to my work in Cadmus?
description: Pasted text can introduce invisible characters that warp your PDF formatting. Here’s how to use the Hidden Characters tool in Cadmus to fix them.
---
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# Why does my submission PDF look different to my work in Cadmus?
## Find and remove hidden characters that can cause your submission PDF to wrap or format differently than what you see in the editor.
When you *paste* text into Cadmus from another source, it can sometimes bring along invisible characters, such as **non-breaking spaces, zero-width spaces, or soft hyphens**. These look like a normal space in the editor, so there’s nothing to suggest anything’s wrong. However, they can affect how your text wraps once it’s exported to PDF, resulting in formatting differences between the Cadmus editor and your submission document.
To find and remove them before submitting your final work, you can turn on Hidden Characters from the Toolbar.
1. Click the button **¶** make hidden characters visible. This reveals a legend banner below the toolbar and overlays a small, colour-coded symbol on each hidden character in your document.
2. Review your document for any unexpected hidden characters. Click next to it and backspace or delete the character, replacing it with a regular character if needed.
The toggle is off by default and resets each time you open the editor so you will need to turn it on again. When the toggle is on, these symbols are a visual overlay only, and won’t affect your actual content.
TIP: It’s worth checking for hidden characters before submitting, especially if you’ve pasted content from another document or a website. Catching these early can help you avoid formatting differences in your submitted PDF.
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