Microsoft Word weird symbols?

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

The dots certainly are a nuisance, but those ¶ 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 can be safely turned off. Here's how:

In Word versions prior to Word 2007 (Vista):

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.

In Word 2007, do this:

1. Click the Office Button.

2. Click the Word Options button.

3. On the left side of the dialog box, click Display.

4. Under Always Show These Formatting Marks On The Screen, put a check mark next to Paragraph Marks.

5. Make sure all the other entries in this section are unchecked.

6. Click OK.

If you still want to get rid of the ¶ marks, do this instead:

In earlier versions:

1. Click the ¶ button on the formatting toolbar.

In Word 2007:

1. Click the ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home tab.

That's it.

Weird Symbols In Word

You have your "symbols" turned visible. It's showing you the spaces at dots and P is a hard paragraph break (carriage return, or Enter key). They will NOT show up when you print the document. Go ahead, print a page, see what it looks like. If they're annoying you, there should be a menu entry somewhere with the backwards P on it that turns that feature on and off. It is possible to configure Word so that menu entry isn't there, so if you can't find it, you'll have to figure out how to configure it back in. And it's different for every different version of Word. Really, if you can't find the menu entry, it would be easier to just put up with it.

If you are using Word 2003, it's in options. You need to make sure show all formatting is off. In Word 2007 there on the ribbon is the paragraph symbol, click to turn the formatting off and on.

Search in the tools bar and find the paragraph symbol. It looks like this ¶.

Click it to show/hide the paragraph symbol on your document.

LOL.... Search up in the tools.. That happens to me like every day...