Tiny Non Printing Characters

[BillHurt]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello, I have a nagging problem with my non printing characters.

Mainly the problem is with the dots that represent spaces. I don't want to get rid of them, I just want to make them larger.

No matter what font size I select they are teeeeny tiny! I think they take up literally about two pixels.

The paragraph marks seem to be fixed at a rather small maximum size as well, though not as bad as the space marks. If I zoom out the paragraph marks will get smaller, but up to a certain size refuse to grow any larger.

I am using a 24" IMac, so you can imagine how annoying it can be to be looking at these little tiny space marks.

I have looked everywhere I know how to look so I was hoping some one here might have some ideas.

Thanks.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Bill,

you cannot change the appearance of non-printing characters. Please send
your feedback to Microsoft (Help>Send Feedback about Word).

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello, I have a nagging problem with my non printing characters.

Mainly the problem is with the dots that represent spaces. I don't want to get
rid of them, I just want to make them larger.

No matter what font size I select they are teeeeny tiny! I think they take up
literally about two pixels.

The paragraph marks seem to be fixed at a rather small maximum size as well,
though not as bad as the space marks. If I zoom out the paragraph marks will
get smaller, but up to a certain size refuse to grow any larger.

I am using a 24" IMac, so you can imagine how annoying it can be to be looking
at these little tiny space marks.

I have looked everywhere I know how to look so I was hoping some one here
might have some ideas.

Thanks.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[CyberTaz]

Sorry Bill - you can turn them on/off but you can't do anything about their
size, color, etc. You may want to offer a suggestion via Help> Send
Feedback. I'm sure many people are experiencing similar frustration as a
result of high resolution displays.

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

 

[BillHurt]

Thank you for that response. I was hoping that was not the case but oh well. I suppose I will just turn off the space marks and leave the other marks as they stand.

I submitted feedback as you suggested and I hope they can incorporate that functionality in a future update.

 

[BillHurt]

Bob,
I replied to Michel and I think you posted shortly after I started my reply. Thanks for reply as well though.

I think this problem might give us a bit of an insight into how the Microsoft team works with the software. I think that if they were working with Word on a high resolution display (and really, who thinks they are doing this stuff on bad resolution 16 inch displays) with the formatting marks turned on, this would be a pretty obvious problem.

I think maybe they just aren't using these marks as often as some of us do.

Oh well, its a pretty small problem with an otherwise pretty nice software package. I hope they can fix it soon.

Thanks again.

 

[Jeff]

Yeah it is really frustrating that they don't have this feature extra spaces are a big deal for some people so we really need to be able to see the marks clearly.

 

[CyberTaz]

I understand your point, but for MacBU it's a no-win situation

At one time the non-printing characters were bigger & blacker which
triggered complaints that they were obtrusive.

They responded & were hit by complaints that they were too faint.

They responded by changing the color to blue for higher contrast & guess
what... So where do they go from here? {Insert platitude of your choice here
- my Dad's favorite was "You can't win for losing."}

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

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jeff;

You might consider using Help>Send Feedback to submit your comments &
requests where the decision makers are likely to see them. Nobody here has
any control over what MS does/doesn't do.

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

 

[Clive Huggan]

I agree, Bob.

Jeff, if by "extra spaces are a big deal for some people" you mean that you
need to be on the lookout for unwanted double spaces, all you need to do is
key Command-Shift-h, then when the Find & Replace window appears, type in
two hits of the spacebar, then hit the Tab key, then one hit of the
spacebar. Then key Command-a. Voila! All duplicated spaces gone!

Clive Huggan
============

 

[Clive Huggan]

I've just sent Feedback to keep them small... ;-)

CH
==