Help with Microsoft Word...?

I hit something accidentally and now have paragraph indicators at the beginnings of each paragraph and little dots between words showing all the spaces...very distracting...how do I get rid of them?

The Phlebob2008-07-23T18:13:09Z

Favorite Answer

First, don’t worry. None of the characters print.

The dots certainly are a nuisance, but those strange ¶ symbols are really your friends. They show exactly where each paragraph ends. Since all paragraph formatting (tabs, indents, margins, line spacing, before and after paragraph spacing, ...) is attached to them, accidentally deleting one can cause mysterious reformatting problems. I've found it's nice to know where they are.

Now, the other characters that may also appear aren't as useful and can be safely turned off. Here's how (with Word XP (2002) and the adjacent versions):

1. Click the Tools->Options menu item.
2. Click the View tab.
3. Under Formatting Marks, select ONLY Paragraph Marks and deselect all others.
4. Click OK.

That's it.

jdvcn692008-07-23T09:30:02Z

in Word click on Tools > Options > View (tab) under Formatting Marks uncheck everthing.