How do I turn off the formatting marks permanently on a document?

[TOnovice]

In some documents I shared with other users, the formatting marks have been
turned on (i.e., dots for spaces, tab indicators). Each time I go into
Tools->Options to remove the check marks beside "tab characters" and "spaces"
and save the file. The next time I open the file, they reappear.

How can I get these formatting marks to stop reappearing when I open the
file?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If your Options settings are not being saved, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

The easiest way to turn formatting characters off is to click the pilcrow (¶)
on the standard toolbar. I suspect he setting was somehow changed in your
normal.dot template. To fix this, open Normal.dot. You will probably see a
paragraph symbol (pilcrow) in the text. Click the pilcrow on the toolbar to
hide the formatting marks. Add, then delete a space, and save and close the
template.

PamC

 

[Beth Melton at microsoft.com]

In some documents I shared with other users, the formatting marks have
been
turned on (i.e., dots for spaces, tab indicators). Each time I go into
Tools->Options to remove the check marks beside "tab characters" and
"spaces"
and save the file. The next time I open the file, they reappear.

How can I get these formatting marks to stop reappearing when I open the
file?

The display of formatting marks (non printing characters) are stored in the
Registry, not the document or your Normal template. Try the following:

- If Word is running, exit and restart Word.
- Make sure you only have one document open
- Go to Tools/Options and make your changes.
- Exit Word and restart Word and see if your changes stick.

If they do then when you tried changing them before you had more than one
document window open. Here's a common scenario: DocA shows the formatting
marks and DocB doesn't. You make your revisions in DocB and close the file.
You open another file and continue working, etc. The last file you close
before exiting Word is DocA. Since DocA still has the formatting marks
displayed that's the preference Word saves and uses the next time you start
Word.

If the changes aren't preserved then does it only occur on one single
document? If so, close the document, make your changes again and hold Shift
while you are opening the file. It's possible there is a macro in the
document, or template the document is based on, that is turning them back on
and holding the Shift key will prevent the macro from running.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx