Word 2004 shows bracket characters "[" and "]"

[Tony]

Hi,

Word 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 shows bracket characters "[" and "]" that
are about 30% larger than the normal brackets that I may type on that
document.

I cannot delete or even copy such weird brackets that I have not typed
in any way.

They are scattered along the Word document which contains only text.

Any idea about this issue? Thanks.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Word 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 shows bracket characters "[" and "]" that
are about 30% larger than the normal brackets that I may type on that
document.

I cannot delete or even copy such weird brackets that I have not typed
in any way.

They are scattered along the Word document which contains only text.

Any idea about this issue? Thanks.

Sounds like bookmark indicators.

Do they disappear when you choose Preferences/View/Show/Bookmarks?

 

[Tony]

JE McGimpsey,

Absolutely right! Many thanks.

Now, how to avoid this in the future and how to delete them permanently?

I mean, I did not type them for sure. I just copy/pasted text from web
pages and there are they. And as far as I remember I always tried to
paste such text as "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text".

Thanks again.


---

Word 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 shows bracket characters "[" and "]" that
are about 30% larger than the normal brackets that I may type on that
document.

I cannot delete or even copy such weird brackets that I have not typed
in any way.

They are scattered along the Word document which contains only text.

Any idea about this issue? Thanks.

Sounds like bookmark indicators.
Do they disappear when you choose Preferences/View/Show/Bookmarks?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

And as far as I remember I always tried to
paste such text as "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text".

AFAIK, pasting as unformatted text should remove any bookmarks.

 

[matt neuburg]

AFAIK, pasting as unformatted text should remove any bookmarks.

Lots of things you do in normal use can generate bookmarks.

To remove bookmarks, choose Insert > Bookmark. This allows to delete
bookmarks one by one. You may want to choose to view Hidden bookmarks. I
often find that documents behaving in a weird fashion behave much better
after I delete all the mysteriously generated bookmarks. m.

 

[Tony]

Hi,

Many thanks for the feedback.

Matt: wow! -- it did work!

I only wish:

1 - Word 2004 would paste without these nasty bookmarks. Or at least
that would allow to set not to paste or use never ever any of them. I
have never used them and do not want them.

2 - To delete them all at once if a document has them. I had about 600
of such bookmarks just copy/pasting text from the internet, and I did
not know about it. Deleting them all would be great (I had to do it
one-by-one; really redious!).

But as said, the best would be to configure Word 2004 not to insert any
of such bookmarks ever when pasting text. Ever.

Thanks again.

---

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Bookmark indicators will appear only if you use the View options to ask for
them.

--
http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.

JE McGimpsey,

Absolutely right! Many thanks.

Now, how to avoid this in the future and how to delete them permanently?

I mean, I did not type them for sure. I just copy/pasted text from web
pages and there are they. And as far as I remember I always tried to
paste such text as "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text".

Thanks again.


---

Word 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 shows bracket characters "[" and "]" that
are about 30% larger than the normal brackets that I may type on that
document.

I cannot delete or even copy such weird brackets that I have not typed
in any way.

They are scattered along the Word document which contains only text.

Any idea about this issue? Thanks.

Sounds like bookmark indicators.
Do they disappear when you choose Preferences/View/Show/Bookmarks?

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Why?
The bookmarks were inserted for some purpose.
You do not even know that they are there unless you enable the View option.

If bookmarks are arbitrarily removed then certain fields can break.

 

[Tony]

Howard,

Thanks.

The bookmarks have caused me all sorts of weird problems with Word files.

The bookmarks were not inserted by anyone on purpose and do not have
any purpose in my documents. They just got there because I copy/pasted
text from web pages. Removing them all (I have found hundreds on single
Word files) fixed lots of problems!
Amazing but true.

Actually, I never ever had used a bookmark. No not even know what are
they for. Nor want to use them after this experience.

I only wish Word had an option to automatically remove them at least
from my personally created documents.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Tony,

You *can* get rid of bookmarks when pasting text in from the Web -- instead
of "Paste" use "Paste Special". I'd recommend that anyway, because you
won't have your document contaminated by formatting from all over the place,
and it's quick and easy to apply styles to the resulting plain-vanilla text.

I agree that some text comes with bookmarks that I don't want, but you need
to remember that Word has many powerful features that save huge amounts of
time and add much functionality for those who want to use them. The bookmark
is certainly one of those features.

If you ever change your mind and want to know what they can be used for,
look up "bookmark" and "add a bookmark" in Word's Help, which in 2004 got
much better, or for more comprehensive information read under the heading
'Bookmarks in cross-referencing' in "Bend Word to Your Will", available from
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm

Cheers,

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

 

[Tony]

Clive,

Thanks for the tips.

Yet, it is really tedious not having a keyboard shortcut for the long
menu command of "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text".

Mainly if you copy/paste a lot from web pages. For instance, I do with
my resume and other documents because the information required is
published in such web pages.

I hope Microsoft includes soon a keyboard shortcut for the following as
other applications (see for instance Eudora 6.1.1) have:

Copy unformatted text: Shift Command C
Paste unformatted text: Shift Command V

And also a menu command and a keyboard command to:

Copy clean text.
Paste clean text.

I mean to clean text from extra e-mail or web formatting characters
much as SmartWrap or TextSoap do.

Thanks again,

---

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Yet, it is really tedious not having a keyboard shortcut for the long
menu command of "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text".

You can put this

Public Sub PastePlainText()
Selection.PasteAndFormat wdFormatPlainText
End Sub


in your normal template (or an add-in:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/GlobalTemplate.htm

for why that's better), and assign it a keyboard shortcut.

 

[Tony]

JE McGimpsey

Thanks.

That is a solution until Microsoft places a simple keyboard command.

Although I must say that after my experience with the Word issues and
crashes (see my previous posts) I am a bit reluctant to use add-ins,
macros, etc.

---

 

[JE McGimpsey]

That is a solution until Microsoft places a simple keyboard command.

Probably won't happen unless MS creates a new command to specifically
paste unformatted text. Make sure you also use Help/Feedback to tell MS
you want them to implement such a command.

Although I must say that after my experience with the Word issues and
crashes (see my previous posts) I am a bit reluctant to use add-ins,
macros, etc.

I've been using add-ins for years to store macros with no problems.
Macros certainly make my productivity much higher.

 

[Tony]

JE McGimpsey,

Done.

Thanks,

---

Probably won't happen unless MS creates a new command to specifically
paste unformatted text. Make sure you also use Help/Feedback to tell MS
you want them to implement such a command.



I've been using add-ins for years to store macros with no problems.
Macros certainly make my productivity much higher.

 

[Susan B]

Would you get the same result from choosing "Text Only" from the pasting
Smart Button?

 

[Clive Huggan]

You're right. This option even changes the paragraph mark(s) in the pasted
text from whatever it was / they were, to the same paragraph mark(s) as the
paragraph in which you had the insertion point when you paste -- which is
the same as if one used Paste Special » Plain Text.

[But for anyone wanting to have the facility available on a toolbar (or
keyboard shortcut), it's described in my notes "Bend Word to Your Will",
downloadable from http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm,
in appendix E.]

Thanks for asking this, Susan -- it got me out of my one-track mind! (I
don't like the Paste Options button, or any other "Smart button", so I had
it turned off in Preferences).

Cheers,

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

 

[Tony]

Hi,

Where is such "Smart Button" to paste text only?

Thanks.

---On 2004-08-29 09:21:27 +0200, Clive Huggan

You're right. This option even changes the paragraph mark(s) in the pasted
text from whatever it was / they were, to the same paragraph mark(s) as the
paragraph in which you had the insertion point when you paste -- which is
the same as if one used Paste Special » Plain Text.

[But for anyone wanting to have the facility available on a toolbar (or
keyboard shortcut), it's described in my notes "Bend Word to Your Will",
downloadable from http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm,
in appendix E.]

Thanks for asking this, Susan -- it got me out of my one-track mind! (I
don't like the Paste Options button, or any other "Smart button", so I had
it turned off in Preferences).

Cheers,

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

Would you get the same result from choosing "Text Only" from the pasting
Smart Button?

 

[Clive Huggan]

In Word 2004, Word menu -> Preferences -> Edit -> Cut and Paste Options ->
select "Show Paste Options buttons".

When you paste, operating the pop-down on the Smart Button next to the
pasted text gives you options that include plain text.

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
===================

Hi,

Where is such "Smart Button" to paste text only?

Thanks.

---On 2004-08-29 09:21:27 +0200, Clive Huggan

You're right. This option even changes the paragraph mark(s) in the pasted
text from whatever it was / they were, to the same paragraph mark(s) as the
paragraph in which you had the insertion point when you paste -- which is
the same as if one used Paste Special » Plain Text.

[But for anyone wanting to have the facility available on a toolbar (or
keyboard shortcut), it's described in my notes "Bend Word to Your Will",
downloadable from http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm,
in appendix E.]

Thanks for asking this, Susan -- it got me out of my one-track mind! (I
don't like the Paste Options button, or any other "Smart button", so I had
it turned off in Preferences).

Cheers,

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

Would you get the same result from choosing "Text Only" from the pasting
Smart Button?


You can put this

Public Sub PastePlainText()
Selection.PasteAndFormat wdFormatPlainText
End Sub


in your normal template (or an add-in:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/GlobalTemplate.htm

for why that's better), and assign it a keyboard shortcut.
.

 

[Tony]

Clive,

Thanks.

Is that "plain text" you are talking about the same as the "Keep text
only" that I see on such popup menu?


---

In Word 2004, Word menu -> Preferences -> Edit -> Cut and Paste Options ->
select "Show Paste Options buttons".

When you paste, operating the pop-down on the Smart Button next to the
pasted text gives you options that include plain text.

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
===================

Hi,

Where is such "Smart Button" to paste text only?

Thanks.

---On 2004-08-29 09:21:27 +0200, Clive Huggan

You're right. This option even changes the paragraph mark(s) in the pasted
text from whatever it was / they were, to the same paragraph mark(s) as the
paragraph in which you had the insertion point when you paste -- which is
the same as if one used Paste Special » Plain Text.

[But for anyone wanting to have the facility available on a toolbar (or
keyboard shortcut), it's described in my notes "Bend Word to Your Will",
downloadable from http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm,
in appendix E.]

Thanks for asking this, Susan -- it got me out of my one-track mind! (I
don't like the Paste Options button, or any other "Smart button", so I had
it turned off in Preferences).

Cheers,

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


On 28/8/04 2:19 AM, in article [email protected],

Would you get the same result from choosing "Text Only" from the pasting
Smart Button?


You can put this

Public Sub PastePlainText()
Selection.PasteAndFormat wdFormatPlainText
End Sub


in your normal template (or an add-in:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/GlobalTemplate.htm

for why that's better), and assign it a keyboard shortcut.
.