---
title: "Visual Characters plugin"
description: "See invisible characters like non-breaking spaces."
canonical_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/visualchars/"
md_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/visualchars/index.md"
version: "latest"
last_updated: "2026-03-09T01:59:33Z"
tokens: 540
---
# Visual Characters plugin

This plugin adds the ability to see invisible characters like ` ` displayed in the editable area. It also adds a toolbar control and a menu item `Show invisible characters` under the `View` menu.

## Basic setup

```js
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: 'visualchars',
  toolbar: 'visualchars'
});
```

> **Note:** For information on bundling this plugin with module bundlers, see [Bundling TinyMCE - Overview](../bundling-guide/).

## Options

This setting affects the execution of the `visualchars` plugin. Characters can be configured to be visible by default using this option.

### `visualchars_default_state`

This option enables specifying the default state of the Visual Characters plugin.

**Type:** `Boolean`

**Default value:** `false`

**Possible values:** `true`, `false`

#### Example: using `visualchars_default_state`

```js
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to the HTML
  plugins: 'visualchars',
  toolbar: 'visualchars',
  visualchars_default_state: true
});
```

## Toolbar buttons

The Visual Characters plugin provides the following toolbar buttons:

| Toolbar button identifier | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `visualchars` | Toggles the visibility of non breaking character elements. |
These toolbar buttons can be added to the editor using:

- The [`toolbar`](../toolbar-configuration-options/#toolbar) configuration option.
- The [`quickbars_insert_toolbar`](../quickbars/#quickbars_insert_toolbar) configuration option.
- [Custom Context toolbars](../contexttoolbar/).

## Menu items

The Visual Characters plugin provides the following menu items:

| Menu item identifier | [Default Menu Location](../menus-configuration-options/#example-the-tinymce-default-menu-items) | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `visualchars` | View | Toggles visibility of nonbreaking spaces on/off. |
These menu items can be added to the editor using:

- The [`menu`](../menus-configuration-options/#menu) configuration option.
- The [`contextmenu`](../menus-configuration-options/#contextmenu) configuration option.
- [Custom Menu toolbar buttons](../custom-menu-toolbar-button/).

## Commands

The Visual Blocks plugin provides the following TinyMCE command.

| Command | Description |
| --- | --- |
| mceVisualChars | Toggles visual characters on/off. |
Example
```js
tinymce.activeEditor.execCommand('mceVisualChars');
```