# Miserable, stupid Word question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081 "2006-11-12T05:58:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/1 "2006-11-12T05:58:53Z")
It feels that way at this time of the night, anyway… This has happened before, but it’s been so long that I dont’ remember what I did to fix it. While in a Word doc, I accidentally pressed some combinaion of keys. Immediately, all of the paragraph markers and dots representing spaces between words were shown. I CAN’T GET THEM TO GO AWAY. I’ve tried every option I can think of. HELP@!!! ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/2 "2006-11-12T06:04:00Z")
The easiest way (if it hasn’t been hidden) is to click the little button that looks like “¶” up on your toolbar. That shows or hides all the hidden paragraph markers and spaces and tabs and what-not. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/3 "2006-11-12T06:05:29Z")
I hate it when that happens. See if this helps: 1. Go to Tools/Options/View 2. De-select all options under “Formatting Marks” 3. Click Ok ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/4 "2006-11-12T06:08:18Z")
“Control+\*” (that is, holding down the [CONTROL] and [SHIFT] keys and pressing 8 on the top row) also works. ---
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/5 "2006-11-12T16:31:08Z")
Thanks for all the advice! 🙂 I was able to get all the icky little formatting marks to go away… ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/6 "2006-11-12T17:47:44Z")
[QUOTE=Anise] Thanks for all the advice! 🙂 I was able to get all the icky little formatting marks to go away… [/QUOTE] A colleague brought her daughter to work on Friday (school was out) and left her in my office while she picked up what she needed to go home and work. I was working in Word, and the daughter asked me, “Why do you put dots between all your words?” Then she was in awe when I made the little dots all disappear! I actually like seeing the formatting marks; I’m not sure why. It made more sense in the old days of Word and WordPerfect when you could see all your formatting marks. Now, what you see on the screen (underlining, italics, etc.) is what prints, but I remember when you used to see them as formatting marks instead. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/7 "2006-11-12T19:03:00Z")
[QUOTE=Campion] I actually like seeing the formatting marks; I’m not sure why. [/QUOTE] I prefer to leave the ¶ clicked on. It makes it easier to spot where I might have inadvertantly used (or deleted) “Enter” or “Shift+Enter” for the other one that is now forcing or interrupting a specific format. There are a couple of other similar situations (_e.g._, table entries) that the formatting marks make easier to spot, as well. Deb hates when I modify a document (at her request) and forget to turn off formatting display, but, depending on the printer, WYSIWYG is often fuzzyWYG and I like to see potential problems before I waste the paper. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/8 "2006-11-12T19:15:57Z")
[QUOTE=Campion] I actually like seeing the formatting marks; I’m not sure why. It made more sense in the old days of Word and WordPerfect when you could see all your formatting marks. Now, what you see on the screen (underlining, italics, etc.) is what prints, but I remember when you used to see them as formatting marks instead. [/QUOTE] WordPerfect still has that feature. Makes it **so** much easier to fix it when it decides to use some crazy formatting that you didn’t want. I’ve heard rumours that certain special versions of Word that aren’t available to the public also have the feature. I’d guess that they don’t put it in normal versions of Word because that would make reverse-engineering the file format a lot easier. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miserable-stupid-word-question/380081/9 "2006-11-12T22:59:13Z")
[QUOTE=Campion] I actually like seeing the formatting marks; I’m not sure why. It made more sense in the old days of Word and WordPerfect when you could see all your formatting marks. Now, what you see on the screen (underlining, italics, etc.) is what prints, but I remember when you used to see them as formatting marks instead. [/QUOTE] [The Matrix]“I don’t even see the formatting marks any more–just blonde, brunette, redhead…”[/The Matrix]