Help! Microsoft Word problems (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

I wasn't sure where to post this.
I am using Windows ME and had installed microsoft office professional. All was working ok for quite some time (months). All of a sudden, I started seeing funny grqphic characters in my text (Micorsoft Word). It is a real pain because there are dozens in a single page, scattered throughout my text. Even when you create a blank document, at the beginninng there is already a strange character.
So I de-installed office from my computer and re-installed the whole thing. Same problem. Has anyone seen this? What can I do?
Thanks in advance.
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[BryanZ]

Install and run McAfee or Norton anti-virus. Sounds like you may be infected.

 

[MickeS]

Since I assume you've already checked this, I almost feel bad for pinting it out, but this sounds like you have the "Show all" option set. If the weird character on a new document looks kind of like a backwards P then this is it. Having this option set, "displays formatting marks such as tab characters, paragraph marks, and hidden text" (straight out of Microsofts help file).
Just click the button that has the weird character that you see when you open a blank document on it (it's on the standard toolbar, you might have to click the "two arrows" to show all the buttons), and it will toggle this function on and off. The button is called "Show all".
Hopefully that's it, but probably not, that would be too easy.
/Mike
[Edited last by MickeS on November 09, 2001 at 03:21 PM]

 

[Neil Joseph]

Man I feel like an idiot. Thanks for the "fix". Just what the heck would someone want to see those anyway as an option.
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[MickeS]

Just what the heck would someone want to see those anyway as an option

They are extremely helpful when creating for example WinHelp files, or other types of documents that have to be formatted according to very strict guidelines.
For example, you see right away if someone used tabs correctly, or just used blankspace to positon something on the screen.
/Mike

 

[Jay H]

I used to hate WordPerfect 5.1 which we used to use long time ago. Awkward setup and interface, but one of the things that sometimes would come in handy is there little "details mode" which would split the screen in two and you'd see the actual formatting at the bottom with the text at the top. It would be very useful to debug weird things or if you just wanted to change some stuff, you could go in there and change it. Kind of like using LaTeX or even writing things in Postscript. It helped to be familiar with programming a bit, but you could go in there and tweak stuff.
I guess if you were to show the invisible formatting characters, it would help if you were seeing something unexplained or unintentional and correct it...
Jay
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[Jeff R.]

I always prefered the split screen view of the formatting that WordPerfect did/does compared to the integrated view that Word does. It's a little harder for me to work with Word with the details view but I don't really have much of a choice these days.

 

[Bill Catherall]

Hmm...that's weird. I could have sworn I posted the "fix" to this thread yesterday, but now it's not showing up. Oh well...I'll get it next time.

I find the formating characters to be very helpful when I format things. The split screen in WordPerfect was very difficult for me to use. The way Word does it is just to my liking. It did take some getting used to though. I didn't like it at first. It was too hard to read. When I do the typing I have all the formating characters off. But when I go to do the final detail formating, they all go on and it makes a world of difference. Especially since Word likes to sometimes make its own assumptions and starts doing its own thing. I can see much more clearly what is getting messed up and how to correct it.
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Bill