How to remove formatting marks from Outlook. By 30 July 2008 at 11:57 am 66,850 views 87 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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87 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
    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?

  5. 5
    Dorothy A Stankavage :

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

  6. 6
    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.

  7. 7
    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!

  8. 8
    Tired of P's :

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

  9. 9
    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!

  10. 10
    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 :-)

  11. 11
    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.

  12. 12
    Bob Cleveland, OH :

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

  13. 13
    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!!!

  14. 14
    JC :

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

  15. 15
    Christina :

    I finally found helpful instructions! Thanks!

  16. 16
    Vishal :

    Really helpful, thanks!

  17. 17
    khagendra :

    Thanks so much. That was really helpful.

  18. 18
    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!

  19. 19
    DJH :

    Thank you. Very clear and concise directions.

  20. 20
    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

  21. 21
    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!

  22. 22
    Jon :

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  23. 23
    Anu :

    Thank you so much for the nice explanation.

  24. 24
    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

  25. 25
    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.

  26. 26
    Grace :

    Thank you so much! very clear instructions :)

  27. 27
    WALID :

    Many thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss man

  28. 28
    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.

  29. 29
    Gloria :

    thank you !

  30. 30
    VYKTOR :

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

  31. 31
    Cpalo :

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

  32. 32
    kevin :

    thanks, i was looking for this as well.

    sharing keeps the world spinning…..

  33. 33
    Lisa :

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

  34. 34
    velmurugan :

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

  35. 35
    Karan :

    Awesome and clear tips, thanks!

  36. 36
    Tina :

    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 )

  37. 37
    Dan :

    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

  38. 38
    Tesha :

    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!

  39. 39
    Becky Carroll :

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

  40. 40
    Jan Hall :

    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!

  41. 41
    Janelle :

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

  42. 42
    Denise :

    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!

  43. 43
    Joe :

    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…

  44. 44
    Joe :

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

  45. 45
    Andrew J :

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

  46. 46
    Vidyadhar Dabke :

    Thanks a lot!!!!

  47. 47
    Shane Edwards :

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

  48. 48
    Julio :

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

  49. 49
    eve :

    lo maximoooooooooooooooooo…
    mil graciassss

  50. 50
    Aneesh :

    Thanks buddy tc

  51. 51
    E :

    Wowzer!!! Thanks thanks!!!

  52. 52
    Velu :

    Useful :)

  53. 53
    richard :

    Hi,

    I was wondering how come my outlook just got those formatting markers… This is helpful.. those are annoying and thanks!

  54. 54
    Troy :

    Thank you very much. This was the best and most helpful answer I found.

  55. 55
    A grateful Google searcher :

    Two years later, random people on the internet are still thanking you. I’m one of them.

    Thanks for keeping older posts like this one available.

  56. 56
    Marilyn :

    Excellent, this gave me my answer first try!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  57. 57
    Another grateful Google searcher :

    THANK YOU!!!! I wasted 10 minutes trying to figure it out myself and this answer was the first one I clicked on – flawless! And I agree – thank you for keeping this avaialble 2 years after the original post!!!

  58. 58
    sherif :

    Thank you so much :D

  59. 59
    Courtney :

    Thanks for your help! you are the best! those symbols were driving me nuts!!!!

  60. 60
    sudhakar :

    thanks a zillion, this really helped me solving my colleague’s problem…and thanks for keeping this post live since 2 years…

  61. 61
    Nayab :

    Thank you.
    Very Helpful.

  62. 62
    Lippy :

    OMG!! I was freaking out all morning think I “Broke” OutlooK.

    Thanks a MILLION

  63. 63
    RG Mcrae :

    You rock! This worked in a flash, and I’ve been wanting to get this done for a while and you’re method worked without any time wasted. thank u, thank u, and thank u mucho.

  64. 64
    Beth :

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Your site is the only one that had very clear instructions, along with a clear diagram, for getting rid of those symbols. Microsoft Outlook site was useless!

    Thanks again!

  65. 65
    Larissa :

    OMG thank you so much!!

  66. 66
    Vanessa :

    Hi Jason, Very helpful! Thanks. I liked your screenshots, particularly the first image, where you zoom the image highlighted. Which program do you use? Like that feature. Thanks.

  67. 67
    Adam Patrech :

    Brilliant – a google directing to you was much easier and quicker than Microsoft Help! Thanks a million!

    Just wondering what I did to make the paragraph and punctuation marks appear – must have been some keyboard shortcut I inadvertently made!

  68. 68
    Anna C :

    I was going out of my mind trying to figure this out and spent a good half hour in MS help and still couldn’t find this annoying fix. Thank you for making it so simple!

  69. 69
    Jazz :

    Thank you!!! My boss was asking me how to do this and I quickly wen to Google and this came up! He was so happy we go this ’cause it was driving him nuts!!

  70. 70
    Jeni :

    Thanks…these things drive me nuts….

  71. 71
    Silvia :

    Thank you very much! This solved the problem very quickly. The only thing that I would add is that you need to start by opening a new message. I was trying to find “View” from outside of a message and could not find it. Thanks!!

  72. 72
    ishu :

    thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a lotttttttttttttttt. so useful

  73. 73
    Rebecca :

    Thank you. Windows is hopeless. This issue was driving me crazy and I could not work out how to turn it off….

  74. 74
    Tanya :

    Thank you! This feature mysteriously appeared and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off! Great easy instructions!

  75. 75
    Jolyon :

    Thank you, it has been so long.

  76. 76
    Lesley :

    Thank you so much for such clear and brief instructions! I love a good screenshot!

    Lesley

  77. 77
    Linda :

    Thank You SO VERY MUCH! Couldn’t find this in ms help presenting the same question. Not sure how it got set up, just all of a sudden started to appear on all outgoing messages and was driving me nuts. You were a great help.

    Linda

  78. 78
    Sandra :

    Thank you soo much .it was crystal clear

  79. 79
    Vignesh :

    Thanks. I knew it was something to do with formatting but could not figure out how to navigate to it with all those options. I pressed some combination on some keys to set this off.

  80. 80
    Alex :

    Perfecto! Thanks a bunch. I love helpful hints that actually do help ;o)

  81. 81
    Paul :

    Thank you! Lifesaver. Amazing how a little thing like this can be such a hassle to remove. Your advice solved it in
    seconds!!!

  82. 82
    meaners :

    THANK YOU!!!!!!! :) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

  83. 83
    janet :

    Your procedure works fine for removing these formatting marks for emails you are wotking in, but how do you remove them pemanently. By the way, I have Outlook 2007, but there is no office button.

  84. 84
    janet :

    OK, it seems to be working now. Thanks so much!

  85. 85
    Tony Romeyn :

    A BIG THANK YOU :) :)

  86. 86
    Eva Lilly Schafferer :

    Thanks!!!

  87. 87
    Dan :

    Very clear instructions thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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