w:vanish (Hidden Text)

Marks the run as hidden so its content is not displayed or printed (unless Show Hidden Text is enabled).

Parent elements

w:rPr

Description

w:vanish hides the run so that its text is not displayed or printed. It is an on/off toggle property defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.3.2.41.

Hidden text is still present in the document XML and can be revealed by enabling “Show hidden text” in the application. Field instruction runs (between w:fldChar begin and w:fldChar separate) commonly use w:vanish to suppress display of the raw field code in normal view.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:val`	`ST_OnOff`	`true`, `1`, `on` (hidden) / `false`, `0`, `off` (visible). Omitting the attribute is equivalent to `true`.	Toggles hidden text on or off.

Examples

<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:vanish/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>This text is hidden</w:t>
</w:r>

new Run(
  new RunProperties(new Vanish()),
  new Text("This text is hidden"));

Notes

Hidden text still occupies space in the XML and affects word count unless explicitly excluded.
Setting w:vanish does not prevent the text from being copied, searched, or accessed programmatically.