Word Art creates box outline on page

[Peter Harrison]

In a new document, with cursor flashing correctly, I clicked on the WordARt
icon in the drawing toolbar, selected the style, then Ok, and put text in
text box. When i clicked OK a box outline on the screen appeared instead of
text in stlye selcted
What am I doin g wrong, it used to work

 

[SVC]

Tools > Options, on the View tab under Show unckec Picture placeholders