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linnealand · Mar 7, 2009, 10:59 PM

I had Microsoft Word open on my computer, and I dropped my mouse. When I looked back at the screen, I realized that the mouse must have turned something on within Word that I definitely do not want to be there. I don't have the faintest idea what this thing is called or what its purpose may be. It is a single black shape, approximately the size of an average font, that is automatically repeated at the end of every line or paragraph. This shape looks a lot like a nonexistent musical note. It has a semicircular head that falls to the left, and it has two skinny legs. I've tried to cut and paste it here, but it won't copy. What is this thing, and how can I get rid of it?

darkvision · Mar 7, 2009, 11:42 PM

This symbol just shows line breaks, it does not print on a document, or effect it in any way. This setting would be in tools>options>view look for something called paragraph marks and uncheck it.

JBeaucaire · Mar 8, 2009, 01:00 AM

Just so you know, the way your mouse was able to turn it on in one click... there's an icon on the Standard Toolbar that looks like a paragraph mark... click that to turn on/off all the visible formatting characters.

¶

darkvision · Mar 8, 2009, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by JBeaucaire

Just so you, the way your mouse was able to turn it on in one click...there's an icon on the Standard Toolbar that looks like a paragraph mark...click that to turn on/off all the visible formatting characters.

¶

Bars can be in different places or turned off. Obviously she hit it on a bar, but its hard to say exactly where, which is why I used the drop down menus to solve this. :)

Also yw for the fix.

ScottGem · Mar 8, 2009, 09:55 AM

The symbol you saw was the ¶, correct? Actually I always turn Paragraph marks and Tab marks on by default. The reason for this is that Word is a very paragraph centric word processor. Formatting is done on paragraphs. If you don't know where the paragraph actually ends you can make mistakes in formatting. So displaying the paragraph mark actually makes your formatting easier.

JBeaucaire · Mar 8, 2009, 04:31 PM

DV, my post wasn't meant as a detraction from your solution, just an informative expansion to it. All about information, nothing more.

linnealand · Mar 8, 2009, 08:32 PM

There it is! It's that thing.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

In my case, the culprit was indeed on a one click icon on the Standard Toolbar, which is exactly what I discovered when I went back in to find its lair.

I would not have imagined that anyone would want to use this bugger. I found it to be painfully distracting. How odd!

Scott, I'm glad to know it works for you! Perhaps I will give it another try one day... maybe. ;)

darkvision · Mar 8, 2009, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by JBeaucaire

DV, my post wasn't meant as a detraction from your solution, just an informative expansion to it. All about information, nothing more.

o_O sorry I didn't mean for it to sound that way, I was just explaining to you why I didn't have the user find it on the bar. From my experience its best to send a user to the root area of a issue, because that spot can't change. In other words file>save as is never going to be not their, but a button for it could or couldn't be or in a different spot on that program. I wasn't saying that your info was bad or incorrect, just that its not the best way to give the solution in my opinion. Was just trying to show you how I thought/tried to solve issues. Again sorry for the miss communication, because extra info is never a bad thing.