why is the space bar making a dot appear in word text on the sc.

[waite]

When I use the space bar while typing in Word a period or dot appears every
time the space bar is touched. When the document is printed the dot does not
appear but I would like to be able to look at a document on the screen
without seeing a period(.) in every space

 

[Jay Freedman]

When I use the space bar while typing in Word a period or dot appears every
time the space bar is touched. When the document is printed the dot does not
appear but I would like to be able to look at a document on the screen
without seeing a period(.) in every space

These are nonprinting characters
(http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm).

If you also see the ¶ character at the end of each paragraph, you probably have
clicked the toolbar button with that symbol -- click it again to turn it off, or
press Ctrl+Shift+8.

If all you see is the dots, that's a setting in the options dialog. In Word 2003
or earlier, click Tools > Options > View and uncheck the "Spaces" option. In
Word 2007, click Office button > Word Options > Display to find the option.

 

[macropod]

Hi waite,

That's so you can see how many spaces, tabs, etc, there are between words. You can toggle this aspect of the display bly clicking on
the ¶ symbol on the toolbar/ribbon.