I have a 62,000-word text, originally produced on a much older computer and saved in Word 97-2003 format. To make it compatible with a newer computer using Windows 7 I have re-saved it in Word. Now, several lines of small, dense black rectangular "studs" have added themselves randomly across various parts in the text and I can't find any way of getting rid of them.
I tried to copy an example here but it showed up only as the line before and the line after, with no "studs". Can anyone suggest how to delete them please?
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Could you try saving it on the older PC in another format? Or perhaps even saving it in another format on the new PC and reloading it might get rid of them?
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sounds like formatting marks, do they print out?
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>> Could you try saving it on the older PC in another format? Or perhaps even
>> saving it in another format on the new PC and reloading it might get rid
>> of them?
Eg. rich text (.rtf) depending on what formatting you've got in the doc
Last edited by: Focusless on Sun 27 Oct 13 at 14:36
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i'd open the the .doc file in Word 2010 - or whatever you use on the Win7 PC - then re-save as .docx and see if they're still there. There's no problem IMX with reading/editing .doc files in Word 2010.
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I no longer have the old computer. Saving in another format, including the original 97-2003 and Rich Text leaves the "studs" intact and they show on printing. How do I save as .docx, spam? This is not shown as an alternative under "Save as..."
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You haven't just managed to get just some formatting marks to show on just some sections have you? It's possible in Word to "fine grain" it so that some formatting marks (like paragraph marks) don't show whilst others (like every space marked with a little black dot) do show.
Here's the MS help text about it, from within Word itself, where you will also see some screen pics as well to aid you in working out what they mean. In case it helps guide you to it, I'm pasting the text anyway. I think I'd highlight all the text (ctrl-a) then make sure all marks are hidden, as described below. See if that helps.
Might be something, might be nothing.
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Show or hide formatting marks
Note For information on turning off revision marks, see Track changes and insert comments.
Show or hide formatting marks
On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide.
The Show/Hide command in the Paragraph group
The Show/Hide button doesn't turn off all formatting marks
The Show/Hide button will not hide all formatting marks if you selected certain marks, such as paragraph marks or spaces, to be displayed at all times.
Turn off selected formatting marks
1.Click the File tab.
2.Under Help, click Options.
3.Click Display.
4.Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, clear the check boxes for any formatting marks that you do not want to show in your documents at all times.
Turn off squiggly lines
The red, green, and blue squiggly lines indicate potential errors in spelling and grammar.
To turn the squiggly lines off, do the following:
1.Click the File tab.
2.Under Help, click Options.
3.Click Proofing.
4.Under When correcting spelling and grammar in Word, clear the check boxes for the items that you want to turn off.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 28 Oct 13 at 10:30
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And if you are still desperate, do this.
Hit Control A (marks whole text), and then Control C (copies it to the clipboard). Then try opening Wordpad (you should have it, but it might be hidden, do a search) and hit Control V to paste it in.
If Wordpad screws it up - look for a free text editor that handles big files - plenty of good ones out there.
Hopefully doing this, all the text will come across, all the line and carriage returns, but none of the other dross.
Then save, and then either reopen with Word (can be done) or copy and past yet again into a new blank document in Word.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Mon 28 Oct 13 at 10:48
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Thanks but Control C produces no result on my computer.
I had found the Help page you kindly paste, Crankcase. Paragraph marks don't normally show unless the Show/Hide button is clicked but the "studs" remain intact. They could at least have been snowpasted out manually on printouts but now there is a worse problem.
>>>every space marked with a little black dot
As a result of my activities *every* space is now marked with a black dot, I mean *every* space in *every* text document, judging by the score or so I have re-opened at random. Mercifully, they don't print out but they make for very tiring reading or compilation. I obviously need some global text command. Have you any idea what it might be?
Oh for Windows 98. Everything was so simple in those days.
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Double check you've done step 4 correctly?
4.Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, clear the check boxes for any formatting marks that you do not want to show in your documents at all times.
Older versions of Word would show/hide everything when pressing the show/hide button. Word 2010 on doesn't - it shows/hides just the ones you've chosen in options. I guess some people wanted things like "show the spaces but not the paragraph marks" is why it works that way now.
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Would be good to know what version of Word you are using now?; I suspect cc is on the money in that you have some formatting marks still enabled somehow.
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>> As a result of my activities *every* space is now marked with a black dot
You have configured Word to display spaces as .'s - easily turned off. What version are you using?
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Yes, it was Step 4. I was misled as all the other marks had been voided apart from Spaces, This was ticked but showed three dots ... and there were no examples of ... on the documents. However, I cleared it anyway and that worked.
I have Word 2007.
Now for those "studs (which persist) but many thanks to all.
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Studs is little black squares? Might be it's picked up a style on your paragraphs. Right click, play with line break settings and so forth.
One explanation with pics is here if it helps.
www.hightechdad.com/2013/03/18/how-to-remove-little-black-square-paragraph-formatting-page-break-in-microsoft-word/
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you have a mouse with wrong polarity cable.
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It could be polarity but other possibilities are resistance, capacitance or inductance. I will certainly look into this but of course the main point is whether or not the cable is directional.
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>>Studs is little black squares?
Yes, but a row of them, right across the text. A single square can be brought up by ticking "Check all formatting marks". The "Line and Page Breaks" approach doesn't' work either. It will clearly be a case of Printout/Tippexout. Thanks all the same.
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Screenshot, put it somewhere we can see and I'll bet it'll get diagnosed in a heartbeat.
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Can you not simply copy the contents you want into another document?
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I've tried to copy and paste here extracts in 3 versions, Word, Word 97-2003 and Rich text Format. The studs don't show, although they do on printing, and there is no gap between lines.
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Woah there, big guy, have I spectacularly missed the point? Are these dots appearing on PAPER, not on the screen?
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They appear on the screen when editing and on printout. They don't appear when I try to copy and paste to here.
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This site is purely text based so any special characters are unlikely to copy across. It sounds to me that these blocks might just be characters from a fount on the original computer that are not on the new one?
(I know it's not normally spelt fount but I know the swear filter will edit it out otherwise)
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So, edit the document.
Select all the text you do want, and not the characters you don't.
Copy it (right click the mouse and select copy, or Ctrl-C)
Open a new document.
Paste the previously copied text in there.
Now how is it?
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>>Now how is it?
Perfect! Or will be, when it is finished. The dots can't be eliminated but I can highlight, copy and paste the block of text above the first row without it being copied; then the block below, just as far as the last line before the next row, highlight, copy and paste, and so forth.
Many thanks for this and all other leads.
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Mystery lines in Word - Focusless
