How to Do Strikethrough Text on Any Platform

Strikethrough text is a visual styling where a horizontal line is drawn through the middle of text, like this: ~~example~~. It is commonly used to indicate that something has been deleted, is no longer relevant, or as a form of editorial mark-up. It can also be used for humorous or ironic effect in online conversations.

While it seems simple, the method for creating strikethrough text varies significantly across different platforms and applications. This guide will show you how to do it everywhere, from word processors to social media apps and even in your web projects.

Why Use Strikethrough?

Before we dive into the 'how', let us briefly cover the 'why'. Strikethrough is a versatile tool for visual communication:

• Showing revisions: In collaborative documents, it is a clear way to show what text has been removed or changed, providing a visible history of edits.
• Task completion: In to-do lists, striking through completed items provides a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
• Indicating irrelevance: It can show that information is outdated or no longer applicable without completely removing it.
• Digital sarcasm: In informal communication, it is often used to add a layer of irony or to show a thought that was censored or reconsidered. For example, "I am ~~totally not~~ excited for the meeting."

Strikethrough in Word Processors

Most dedicated writing software provides a simple way to apply strikethrough formatting.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has a dedicated strikethrough button. First, highlight the text you want to strike through. In the Home tab of the ribbon, look for the Font group. Click the button with an 'ab' and a line through it. This will apply the strikethrough effect. Alternatively, you can use a keyboard shortcut: Alt + H + 4 on Windows, or Cmd + Shift + X on macOS.

Google Docs

Google Docs also makes it easy to add strikethrough text. Select the text you wish to format, go to the Format menu, hover over Text, and select Strikethrough from the sub-menu. The keyboard shortcut for this is Alt + Shift + 5 on Windows and ChromeOS, or Cmd + Shift + X on macOS.

Strikethrough in Messaging and Social Media

Applying strikethrough in chat apps and on social media often involves using special characters or Markdown syntax.

Discord & WhatsApp

Both Discord and WhatsApp use a simple Markdown-inspired syntax for text formatting. To strikethrough text, you just need to wrap it in tildes (`~`). For example, typing `~~this text will be strikethrough~~` will appear as ~~this text will be strikethrough~~. This works for both single words and entire sentences.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Unfortunately, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram do not have built-in functionality for strikethrough text in posts or comments. You cannot just wrap text in tildes and expect it to work. This is where Unicode comes in. To get around this limitation, you need to use a special character set that includes strikethrough letters. You can use an online tool like our Strikethrough Text Generator to convert your normal text into its Unicode strikethrough equivalent. You can then copy and paste this formatted text directly into your posts.

The Unicode Method

Unicode is a universal character encoding standard. It contains a massive library of characters, including letters with various decorations, like strikethrough. When you use a generator tool, it is simply swapping standard letters for their corresponding strikethrough characters in the Unicode set. For example, the letter 'a' is replaced with 'a̶'. Because these are actual characters and not just formatting, they can be displayed on almost any platform that supports Unicode, which is most of them.

This method is incredibly versatile and works not just on social media, but in emails, text messages, and anywhere else you can paste text. Our own Strikethrough Text tool makes this process simple. Just type your text, and it will be instantly converted.

Strikethrough for Web Developers (HTML & CSS)

If you are building a website, you have more robust and semantically correct ways to apply strikethrough formatting.

HTML: The <s> and <del> Tags

HTML provides two primary tags for creating strikethrough text. The <s> tag is used to represent content that is no longer accurate or relevant. The <del> tag is used to represent deleted text and indicates an editorial revision. It is semantically more meaningful than <s>. Both tags will render as strikethrough text in the browser, but <del> provides more context to search engines and screen readers about why the text is struck out.

CSS: The text-decoration Property

For purely stylistic strikethrough, CSS is the best tool. The `text-decoration` property allows you to add lines to text. You can apply it to any text element, like a paragraph or a span, with `text-decoration: line-through;`. You can even get more creative with it, customising the colour, style, and thickness of the line. This gives you complete control over the appearance of the strikethrough effect. For converting Markdown to HTML, you can use a tool like our Markdown to HTML converter.

Conclusion

Strikethrough is a small but mighty formatting tool. Whether you are making edits in a document, crossing off a to-do list, or adding a touch of irony to a chat message, there is always a way to achieve it. For quick conversions, especially for social media, a Unicode strikethrough generator is your best friend. For more formal documents and web development, using the built-in features of your software or the appropriate HTML and CSS is the way to go.