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How to remove formatting marks from Outlook. By Jason 30 July 2008 at 11:57 am 21,950 views 50 Comments

Today I thought I’d show you how to remove formatting marks from Outlook 2007 and 2003.  You may never need to use this, but judging from the amount of people in my office who do, it may come in handy.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Help!  I have all sorts of funny symbols and backwards Ps in my e-mail,”  you’re not alone. I can’t tell you how many times I get a question that sounds like that.  When I get to the users’s computer, it usually looks like this:

Look familiar?  So, how does one fix this problem?

Office 2007

1.  Click your Office Button, then Editor Options.

2.  Click “Display,” then uncheck “Show all formatting marks,” then click “OK.”

3.  That’s all!  Fixed!

Office 2003

1.  Click “Tools,” then “Options.”

2.  Click “View,” then uncheck “All” under “Formatting marks,” then click “OK.”

3.  All done!!

Well, I hope this helps those of you out there who have had this issue!!


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50 responses : “ How to remove formatting marks from Outlook. ”

  1. 1
    Kelly Kilpatrick : 14 August 2008 at 2:39 pm

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you. Your instructions were written very clearly and my problem is now solved!

  2. 2
    Jason : 14 August 2008 at 2:44 pm

    You’re very welcome, Kelly! I’m glad this helped at least one person out!!

  3. 3
    Dan : 22 August 2008 at 12:08 pm

    Thanks so much Jason! As an IT professional, it was a little embarrassing that I didn’t know how to change this setting. The longer I am in this field, it seems, the less I know. :)

  4. 4
    zlatan24 : 31 August 2008 at 7:18 am

    I heard about not bad application-fix outlook,can be work with damage data in Microsoft Outlook, possible it may recover corrupted contacts with are sharing it, also do something read (detect and recover) data from the selected *.pst file, work with storing emails, business and personal contacts, as well as other important information, such as appointments, tasks and notes.

  5. 5
    Kris : 05 September 2008 at 7:22 pm

    I followed the instructions for the 2007 version and when I got to ‘editing options’ the word ‘Display’ isn’t there, there’s “Popular” “Proofing” and “Advanced” no “Display” Help, this is driving me crazy to see all of these marks in my emails, can you suggest anything else?

  6. 6
    Dorothy A Stankavage : 06 September 2008 at 8:15 am

    Kris,
    Under the editor option, choose customise and add the Display to your editor options.

  7. 7
    Ron Valarida : 10 September 2008 at 3:33 pm

    If you are using 2003 and you do not have the “view” tab in your options, to show or hide paragraph marks use Ctrl+Shift+8.

  8. 8
    K. Bryan : 23 October 2008 at 5:21 pm

    I have checked the settings under display, and nothing is checked. But when my user goes to create an email, the paragraph marks are there. The other odd thing, is if she replies to an email, her reply does not show up in the preview pane of the recipient until they hit reply, then they can see her reply. all you see is her signature and no text until you go to reply to it. Help please!

  9. 9
    Tired of P's : 07 November 2008 at 2:33 pm

    I am having the same problem! Does anyone know how to disable this?

  10. 10
    Tired of P's : 07 November 2008 at 4:11 pm

    I fixed my own problem and felt inclined to mention how. If anyone is having problems with the formatting marks appearing when you REPLY or FOWARD in Office 2007, try this:
    1) Open a new email
    2) From the ribbon click Signatures then ‘Signatures…’
    3) Click ‘Personal Stationary’ tab
    4) Double check all of your ‘Fonts…’ for all 3 message types to make sure ‘Hidden’ or some other effect you don’t want is NOT checked (Hidden was checked on my ‘Replying and Forwarding’ which is why the marks kept appearing AFTER I tried to reply or forward).
    Hope this helps someone out there! We feel your pain!

  11. 11
    Teresa : 25 November 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Thanks for the control+shift+8 tip – it worked like a charm. If you are in 1 e-mail it will be removed from that e-mail only. If you click on the inbox then control+shift+8 it will be removed from all future e-mails.

    THANKS AGAIN :-)

  12. 12
    Daniel : 07 January 2009 at 1:49 pm

    thanks for the control+shift+8 suggestion. The menu bar was all messed up as well and I couldn’t get to the edit options. That key combination not only cleared the formatting marks, but it also restored my menus. I’m not even going to bother figuring out why. :) Thanks again.

  13. 13
    Bob Cleveland, OH : 22 January 2009 at 9:17 am

    This was perfect. THANKS for posting it! I would never have found it otherwise.

  14. 14
    RP : 05 March 2009 at 9:37 am

    Thank You!!!! I leaned on a hotkey accidentally and then my compose email window was full of odd paragraph marks. This fixed it, thanks a million!!!

  15. 15
    JC : 27 April 2009 at 9:49 am

    Thanks a mil !!! Your instrutions was clear and to the point.

  16. 16
    Christina : 28 April 2009 at 2:37 pm

    I finally found helpful instructions! Thanks!

  17. 17
    Vishal : 26 May 2009 at 3:34 am

    Really helpful, thanks!

  18. 18
    khagendra : 27 May 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Thanks so much. That was really helpful.

  19. 19
    Alexandra : 30 June 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Very helpful. I don’t like having to bug my helpdesk if I dont have to and I couldnt find these instructions in the HELP on Outlook. Thanks!

  20. 20
    DJH : 06 July 2009 at 11:22 am

    Thank you. Very clear and concise directions.

  21. 21
    Dylan : 13 July 2009 at 2:45 pm

    You can also bypass all the menus and just type Ctrl+Shift+8 … That is the hotkey combo that probably got everyone to this site…LOL

  22. 22
    ron : 04 August 2009 at 10:32 am

    thanks so much..I was going insane and almost having a meltdown because to live with those weird formatting things all over sudden, i was not prepared!

  23. 23
    Jon : 10 August 2009 at 9:41 am

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  24. 24
    Anu : 13 September 2009 at 11:23 pm

    Thank you so much for the nice explanation.

  25. 25
    zack : 28 September 2009 at 3:17 pm

    thank you for the help pretty bad im a young IT had a hard time figuring it out on my own but never worked on outlook before

  26. 26
    Larry : 29 September 2009 at 10:40 am

    Thanks a lot. I’ve been trying all sorts of things to turn those markers off but they didn’t work. Then when I tried your simple little thing it worked like a champ. This thing has been driving me nuts. LOL.

  27. 27
    Grace : 11 November 2009 at 3:14 pm

    Thank you so much! very clear instructions :)

  28. 28
    WALID : 29 December 2009 at 3:59 am

    Many thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss man

  29. 29
    jessica : 13 January 2010 at 8:02 pm

    What would I do without you. This is the 3rd time I have had to find your instructions on the web for this silly problem. You are worth your weight in gold.

  30. 30
    Gloria : 20 January 2010 at 12:52 pm

    thank you !

  31. 31
    VYKTOR : 21 January 2010 at 1:16 pm

    i Just want to thank to the person that posted comment # 10 he saved my ass

  32. 32
    Cpalo : 27 January 2010 at 5:43 pm

    Thank you so much! Fixed in a second after finding this link!!!

  33. 33
    kevin : 03 February 2010 at 4:25 am

    thanks, i was looking for this as well.

    sharing keeps the world spinning…..

  34. 34
    Lisa : 03 February 2010 at 7:19 pm

    Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  35. 35
    velmurugan : 06 February 2010 at 3:15 am

    Thank you very much for your tips.i used it .really thank you very much

  36. 36
    Karan : 06 April 2010 at 12:10 am

    Awesome and clear tips, thanks!

  37. 37
    Tina : 21 April 2010 at 4:37 am

    Thank you so much. I switched this on in error, did not even know what the symbols were called.

    All sorted. No further frustration here :o )

  38. 38
    Dan : 14 May 2010 at 8:19 am

    Thank you for your help.
    Can’t really understand why Microsoft is making simple things complicated.Can’t see why Microsoft gre so big when their support and application sucks.
    Thank you again
    Dan

  39. 39
    Tesha : 26 May 2010 at 9:42 am

    Thank you soooooooo muxch! I am at work, and I like to erase all the formatted headers if I am emailing myself something (saves paper when printing). This time around, those formatting marks- that I HATE- appeared and I couldn’t get them off for the life of me. I don’t know why they automatically appeared this time, but it doesn’t matter now, they’re gone- and its ALL THANKS TO YOU!

  40. 40
    Becky Carroll : 03 June 2010 at 7:13 pm

    Thank you! I searched all over for this info then found your post. Much appreciated!!

  41. 41
    Jan Hall : 16 June 2010 at 1:48 pm

    Voila! Very simple and clear instructions on how to remove formatting marks in Word 2007. I had to compose an email really fast, and I needed to know a fast fix. Yours were the first I clicked on, and wanted to say THANKS!

  42. 42
    Janelle : 22 June 2010 at 6:59 pm

    THANK YOU! I never know what it is i accidentally press to have these symbols appear. You’re a lifesaver

  43. 43
    Denise : 23 June 2010 at 1:42 pm

    Thank you x 1,000,000 ! It is 1:44 & I’ve been trying to figure out how to get those pasky little P’s off of my e-mail since 10 AM ! Thank you SO much!

  44. 44
    Joe : 28 June 2010 at 10:39 pm

    Did not help at all. I have Office 2007 and my Outlook does not look at all like either of your options. I found editor options but there is nothing to show me how to remove formatting marks. Thanks for trying…

  45. 45
    Joe : 28 June 2010 at 10:40 pm

    Found it. I was wrong – your way worked – thanks so much!

  46. 46
    Andrew J : 30 June 2010 at 2:07 pm

    Other sites suggested very complicated remedies. What you showed was so … easy. Thanks for saving me lots of time. – Andrew

  47. 47
    Vidyadhar Dabke : 10 July 2010 at 7:27 am

    Thanks a lot!!!!

  48. 48
    Shane Edwards : 13 July 2010 at 9:14 am

    Thanks, that was a very clear and concise (and easy) fix. Appreciate it!

  49. 49
    Julio : 14 July 2010 at 2:20 pm

    Excellent!!! good recomendation solve my problem!!! thanks a lot

  50. 50
    eve : 19 July 2010 at 3:18 pm

    lo maximoooooooooooooooooo…
    mil graciassss

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