Another possibility is that the font used does not have an italic variant
installed (see the Windows Fonts folders to check on this) and Word is doing
its best to synthesize an "oblique" form of the font.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
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"Genine" wrote in message
...
Are you clicking on the I button on the toolbar or using the keyboard
shortcut?

What happens if you go to format Font and select italic?

It is possible that (a) the button or keyboard shortcut has been hijacked
or
reassigned and/or (b) that the font you are using does not support
italics
(e.g. Monotype corsiva is already an italic font and therefore selecting
italic in the font dialog has no effect).

Genine

"Davidjon" wrote:

When I attempt to use "normal" italic in Word 2003, my Word 2003 has
suddenly
started using upright letters with a space between each letter. How do I
get
the proper italic back?