I've pressed something I shouldn't on laptop

Jivesinger

If I'm on the right lines as to the problem, try this link on Microsoft's website. Look at the "How do I get rid of my Revisions" part.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/remove-tracked-changes-and-comments-from-a-document-HA001098388.aspx

Serida

The icon on Track changes looks like a piece of lined paper with a crayon diagonally across it and a yellow sun top left. I tried the link you suggested but couldn't get further than Reviewing Toolbar.

Jivesinger

That's the icon I'm thinking of - does it have a rectangle around it to show it's selected? (Try selecting and unselecting the option to see what I mean.) You want it switched off (no rectangle).

Is the Reviewing toolbar visible? (Again you could try selecting and unselecting it from the View menu to see which one it is). Once you have it visible, somewhere on there is likely to be a text box with a drop-down arrow saying Final Showing Markup or Final or Original or Original Showing Markup. If this is visible, try changing it to Final.

If not then I'm out of ideas I'm afraid, it could be something else.

Serida

Thanks. I'll try what you suggest,

Serida

Well I've tried. Have unpressed the Track changes icon so no border round. Have 'Final' showing up on Mark up. Very little changes to the document except I now have a dot between every word and hundreds of icons that look like an upside down 'b' with 2 vertical lines and the round bit filled in in black. One positive, though, the red has disappeared. Going to get something to eat now to give me some strength!!

Jivesinger

Serida wrote: »

Well I've tried. Have unpressed the Track changes icon so no border round. Have 'Final' showing up on Mark up.

OK. On that same toolbar, hover your mouse by positioning it over each button and leaving it for a few seconds so that a "tooltip" word comes up. For instance if you hover over Final it should say "Display for review".

If you work across the toolbar from there, then about 4 buttons across there's one where the tooltip that pops up should says "Accept Change" with a downward arrow next to it. The symbol looks to me like a "tick" symbol with a big match diagonally below it. If you click on that downward arrow, then with any luck one of the options is "Accept All Changes in Document". Use this and it should get rid of the red tracking stuff permanently. (Currently it's just hidden.)

Serida wrote: »

I now have a dot between every word and hundreds of icons that look like an upside down 'b' with 2 vertical lines and the round bit filled in in black

Try:
Ctrl-Shift-8

(the "8" key to use is the one with 8 and * on it, near the top of the keyboard, not the numeric one which you may have on the right .)

Serida

Thank you so much. I am going to try what you have said tomorrow as I'm losing the will to live with this today. Will let you know how I get on. Again, thanks for your time, trouble and advice. It's very much appreciated.

mumofjusttwo

It sounds like you have the non printing characters displayed. Such as spaces and tab and paragraphs

Here is a link that shows what to do

http://www.ehow.com/how_8403646_rid-nonprintable-characters.html

Serida

Well - thanks to you I have done what you suggest and things are definitely improving. Everything is back to normal with one exception. When I type everything is underlined even though I have clicked and re-clicked on the underline icon and there is still a rectangle on the page (in black I hasten to add) with the words Formatted Style Underline. Any suggestions please?

Jivesinger

Hmm I don't recognise that particular message so I may be stuck.

Just to confirm, the Track Changes option is still "off" isn't it? (If you not may need to switch it off and use "Accept all changes in document" again.)

Just temporarily, use the Ctrl-Shift-8 to make the upside-down 'b's appear again. You can switch them off again later.

Save your document before you try this (in case it goes wrong and you need to revert) but then what happens if you select the whole paragraph that's causing the problem, including the upside-down b. Then from the menu select Format then go down to 'Styles and Formatting'. Select this and it should change what you see on the right hand side of the screen - there should be a 'Styles and Formatting' section. In this, look for an option called "Clear Formatting" and try it. If it's not visible straight away, look for the text box labelled "Formatting of selected text" and use the dropdown arrow to make Clear Formatting appear.

Another thing to try which sometimes works for me is to copy the upside-down b from a "good" paragraph to the one with problems. The b (can't remember its proper name) holds the default formatting for the paragraph.

Beyond that I'm stuck, I'm afraid.