# What is this symbol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525 "2009-09-18T01:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/1 "2009-09-18T01:17:46Z")
I’m cleaning up some OCR text right now, which is tedious and a half. I’ve got non-printing symbols turned on so I could see where the program might have elected to insert unwanted paragraph breaks, and I keep seeing this symbol. It looks like a paragraph break, but it only has one line and curls back like a g. Anyone know what it is, and whether it’s significant? If I delete it and hit enter it just produces the same symbol. All the text is the same font. This is kind of a tiny detail but I don’t want it subtly messing with my paragraphs later. Here’s a picture: [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/csharpmajor/Untitled-1-8.jpg](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/csharpmajor/Untitled-1-8.jpg) Also, I have regular paragraph breaks in the document as well, like the one near the middle where my cursor is. Weird? ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/2 "2009-09-18T01:21:39Z")
it has got to be a soft return. But I have never seen that symbol before. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/3 "2009-09-18T01:32:16Z")
Soft returns appear to be a different symbol (two small marks), and word wrapping is unmarked. :\ ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/4 "2009-09-18T02:26:07Z")
Can you copy and paste the actual symbol here as text? ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/5 "2009-09-18T02:41:34Z")
Interestingly, it looks like a variant of [this](http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/54/5436.html), which, unfortunately, is a variant of the paragraph symbol. I’m going to say it’s a stylized elephant face and the program is smarter than you think. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/6 "2009-09-18T02:56:47Z")
No, it can’t be copied. If I copy a normal paragraph break and paste it into the place the elephant symbols occupy I get the same symbol though, so I’m going to assume they’re the same thing I’d still like to know what the symbol is, though. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/7 "2009-09-18T03:21:27Z")
The only line that has a regular paragraph symbol (next to the cursor) does not have a period at the end of the sentence. Can’t see why that would be relevant, but it might be. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/8 "2009-09-18T05:12:24Z")
In most fonts, including my default font of Century Schoolbook, 11pt, the pilcrow (the paragraph symbol) looks like the symbol adjacent to your cursor, two parallel verticals lines with a left-pointing half circle. In the Consolas font, the monospaced font you appear to be using in that excerpt, the pilcrow’s tail curves to the left. It is the symbol you see throughout your selection. If you hit Ctrl+A and choose Consolas as your font, I think you’ll discover that all the plicrow change accordingly. Likewise, if you hit Ctrl+A and set the font to, say, Century Schoolbook, you will see more conventional symbols. All that notwithstanding, the symbols indicate the font and will act like an ordinary carriage return regardless of what they look like. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-symbol/510525/9 "2009-09-18T05:19:14Z")
What do you know, looks like you’re right. If I paste in the character it shows with a curly tail. If I hit enter, though, it uses the standard character. Guess it’s a quirk of OpenOffice.