New pages & saved files open w/ paragraph symbol & dots between wo

[avery1317]

I am using Office 2003 Professional and whenever I use Word I get a strange
formatting on the page. This happens with new documents or when I open saved
documents. New docs have a paragraph symbol at the top left of the page and I
can't get rid of it. ( I think that is what it is. It has two thin vertical
lines and a solid black half circle on the left top of the left line.) If I
type there are dots between the words. (These are round dots up where a
hyphen would be .) If I open a saved doc file there are dots between all the
words and the symbol at the end of each line. I have gone in and deleted all
versions of normal.dot. I have tried repair on the menu bar. I have tried
using the CD and repairing, I have tried reinstalling and nothing has worked.
I was ready to uninstall and reinstall but I thought I would check here first
to save that hassle. Thanks in advance.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm .

 

[avery1317]

Thanks. Boy do I feel dumb. All these years of word processing, since
Wordstar, and I never knew this existed. It is hidden on my toolbar behind
other options but it sure did the trick. I have no idea how it got toggled on.

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

Thanks. Boy do I feel dumb. All these years of word processing,
since
Wordstar, and I never knew this existed.

Now that you *do* know about nonprinting marks, make use of them!
That's what they are for.

It is hidden on my toolbar behind
other options but it sure did the trick. I have no idea how it got
toggled on.

You probably pressed Ctrl+Shift+8 by mistake.