How to remove formatting marks from Outlook. By Jason 30 July 2008 at 11:57 am 14,311 views 35 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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35 responses : “ How to remove formatting marks from Outlook. ”

  1. 1
    Kelly Kilpatrick :

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

  2. 2
    Jason :

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

  3. 3
    Dan :

    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 :

    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 :

    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 :

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

  7. 7
    Ron Valarida :

    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 :

    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 :

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

  10. 10
    Tired of P's :

    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 :

    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 :

    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 :

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

  14. 14
    RP :

    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 :

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

  16. 16
    Christina :

    I finally found helpful instructions! Thanks!

  17. 17
    Vishal :

    Really helpful, thanks!

  18. 18
    khagendra :

    Thanks so much. That was really helpful.

  19. 19
    Alexandra :

    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 :

    Thank you. Very clear and concise directions.

  21. 21
    Dylan :

    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 :

    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 :

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  24. 24
    Anu :

    Thank you so much for the nice explanation.

  25. 25
    zack :

    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 :

    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 :

    Thank you so much! very clear instructions :)

  28. 28
    WALID :

    Many thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss man

  29. 29
    jessica :

    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 :

    thank you !

  31. 31
    VYKTOR :

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

  32. 32
    Cpalo :

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

  33. 33
    kevin :

    thanks, i was looking for this as well.

    sharing keeps the world spinning…..

  34. 34
    Lisa :

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

  35. 35
    velmurugan :

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

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