Mystery brackets

[Slipface]

Folks,
I've been working with Office 2008 for a few months now, but just
recently I've had a couple documents (in 97-04 format) in which there
are some mysterious brackets in the text. They enclose text, in one
case it was a short title on a figure and in another case it enclosed 7
paragraphs.

The brackets are not selectable or editable--the cursor will jump over
them, and selecting text on both sides of a bracket and applying
formatting--italics, font, etc--does not affect the brackets.

I also cannot simply use either delete key to delete them. However, if
I delete all text between each pair of brackets, I can then delete the
brackets.

Any idea what's going on here?

TIA,
Dennis

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Dennis,

They are bookmarks. Take a look at that topic in Word's Help (I don't have
Word 2008 so I'm hoping it is adequate).

They are benign (albeit useful if you desire to use specific bookmarks that
you insert), and Word sometimes sprays some around for no reason at all --
or rather Word fails to remove temporary ones that it drops in. The easiest
way to "fix" the phenomenon is to go to Word menu => Preferences => View and
de-select "bookmarks".

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[Slipface]

Hello Dennis,

They are bookmarks. Take a look at that topic in Word's Help (I don't have
Word 2008 so I'm hoping it is adequate).

They are benign (albeit useful if you desire to use specific bookmarks that
you insert), and Word sometimes sprays some around for no reason at all --
or rather Word fails to remove temporary ones that it drops in. The easiest
way to "fix" the phenomenon is to go to Word menu => Preferences => View and
de-select "bookmarks".

Aha! Ironically, I recently turned on the bookmarks when I downloaded
your "Bend Word to your Will" guide, as a result of the suggestions for
making it more navigable

Wish there was a way to simply prevent Word from randomly tossing them
into my docs, though, so I wouldn't have to turn bookmarks off and on
in the prefs but so it goes sometimes.



Dennis

 

[Clive Huggan]

Aha! Ironically, I recently turned on the bookmarks when I downloaded
your "Bend Word to your Will" guide, as a result of the suggestions for
making it more navigable

Wish there was a way to simply prevent Word from randomly tossing them
into my docs, though, so I wouldn't have to turn bookmarks off and on
in the prefs but so it goes sometimes.



Dennis

A macro has been posted in this newsgroup to strip out the gratuitous
bookmarks (i.e., only them), Dennis, but for that you would have to upgrade
[sic] back to Word 2004 or wait till Word Next (2010?), which Microsoft has
said will have VBA restored.

The bookmarks are sprayed into documents as a temporary measure, with good
reason (because of the large number of formatting options enabled via Word
from the clipboard; as you know, the OLE bookmarks usually appear around
words that have copied -- though not always). Acrobat (or anything else that
wants to receive Rich Text) causes Word to bookmark the source, rather than
copy directly to the clipboard. John McGhie believes it does this because
Word can place material on the clipboard in about eight different formats,
so it waits to see which one the recipient application requests, then
manufactures it on the fly.

Be that as it may, Word should remove them. Their removal seems to be
"overlooked" most often when software that modifies what's on (or what goes
on) the clipboard is present. Apart from Adobe Acrobat, haxies such as
TypeIt4Me could also be involved. But even with those suspects closed or
otherwise out of the way, stuff still happens.

Other than that, in the absence of macros in Word 2008, the only thing is to
go into Insert menu (if that's still relevant in Word 2008) => Bookmarks and
delete the little blighters...

I guess the consolation is that of themselves, these bookmarks don't cause
any more instability than any other bookmark (i.e., none).

Cheers,

Clive
======

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Dennis;



I'm not sure it will work, but try using Edit> Paste Special - Unformatted
Text rather than simply slapping in the whole shebang. Let me know if it
works - I can't test it myself because I've never seen the buggers appear &
no matter what web site I copy from I can't get them to show up.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hi Dennis;

I'm not sure it will work, but try using Edit> Paste Special - Unformatted
Text rather than simply slapping in the whole shebang. Let me know if it
works - I can't test it myself because I've never seen the buggers appear &
no matter what web site I copy from I can't get them to show up.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Hmm, that's interesting, Bob. I'll keep an eye out for that possible
distinction when I experience the phenomenon -- which I admit is only
occasionally. Possibly because almost all pastes into my Word documents are
unformatted, because I don't want the originator's manual formatting to
muddy my "pure" styles. ;-)

Cheers,

Clive
======

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

I'm not sure it will work, but try using Edit> Paste Special - Unformatted
Text rather than simply slapping in the whole shebang. Let me know if it
works - I can't test it myself because I've never seen the buggers appear &
no matter what web site I copy from I can't get them to show up.

Have you tried turning on "show bookmarks"?



(just had to ask...)

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jeff;

Have you tried turning on "show bookmarks"?



(just had to ask...)

I should be insulted but since you asked, I *rarely* turn them OFF.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Hi Jeff;





I should be insulted but since you asked, I *rarely* turn them OFF.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Well I apologize--I knew that you probably left them on all the
time--I do the same, probably for the same reason as you.

It's just that your comment gave me a flashback to several years
ago when I was once sitting in a classroom where we were supposed
to watch a video tape. They weren't able to get it to
play--checked channel 3, then channel 4, then the cables, then
the VCR settings and then everything all over again--you know the
drill. They eventually had 3 guys at the front all trying to
figure it out while various others in the room threw out
suggestions. After observing all of this for a good 5 minutes or
more, I asked if there was a tape in the machine. The guy goes,
"Oh Yea!" and pulls the tape out of the pocket of his suit jacket

I try to never be insulted when people ask the obvious, because
if I get insulted, it will almost be guaranteed that that will be
the one item I missed!

(Never take anything for granted with Word...)