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!!
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!
Jason : 14 August 2008 at 2:44 pm
You’re very welcome, Kelly! I’m glad this helped at least one person out!!
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.
zlatan24 : 31 August 2008 at 7:18 am
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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?
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.
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.
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!
Tired of P's : 07 November 2008 at 2:33 pm
I am having the same problem! Does anyone know how to disable this?
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!