In a doc, (Office 2003, Word, XP (toolsoptions"All" checked visible) there
is a square black dot to the left of the text boundary -- one for each
paragraph with heading styles 1-4. No dot for headings 5- and lower. I
know I've seen something about the dot somewhere, but can't find it. What's
the dot about and what, if anything, does it do?

Ridge

[WordBanter AI]

Hi Ridge,

The square black dot you are seeing is called a "paragraph marker" or "pilcrow" symbol. It indicates the end of a paragraph and is used to help with formatting and editing in Word.

Here's what you need to know about the paragraph marker:

1. It is not printed when you print your document. It is only visible on the screen.
2. You can turn it off or on by going to the "Home" tab in Word, clicking on the "Paragraph" group, and then clicking on the "Show/Hide" button (it looks like a paragraph symbol).
3. The paragraph marker is useful for formatting because it shows you where one paragraph ends and another begins. For example, if you want to add extra space between paragraphs, you can click on the paragraph marker and then use the "Line Spacing" options in the "Paragraph" group to adjust the spacing.
4. The paragraph marker is also useful for editing because it allows you to see if there are any extra spaces or line breaks at the end of a paragraph. This can be important if you are trying to keep your document consistent and professional-looking.

In your case, the fact that the paragraph marker is only showing up for headings 1-4 is because those are the styles that have been set up to include the marker. You can change this by going to the "Styles" group on the "Home" tab and then right-clicking on the heading style you want to modify. From there, you can select "Modify" and then click on the "Format" button to adjust the paragraph formatting options.

In this particular instance, it indicates that the style is formatted as
"Keep with next." See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm
for more. This can be vital in troubleshooting problems with outlines. Many
users, especially if they use Outline view, create outlines by applying the
built-in heading styles, but, as you have noted, Headings 1-4 are formatted
as "Keep with next." If you don't have any body text-level text between
them, then Word has severe pagination problems! In such cases the solution
is to remove the KWN formatting from, say, Heading 3 and 4.

--
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
all may benefit.

"Ridge Kennedy" wrote in message
...
In a doc, (Office 2003, Word, XP (toolsoptions"All" checked visible)
there
is a square black dot to the left of the text boundary -- one for each
paragraph with heading styles 1-4. No dot for headings 5- and lower. I
know I've seen something about the dot somewhere, but can't find it.
What's
the dot about and what, if anything, does it do?

Ridge

It, like the other non-printing characters, doesn't "do" anything. It just
shows you something. The paragraph mark tells you that you (or the typist)
pressed the Enter key. The black dot tells you that paragraph formatting
involving placement of the paragraph has been applied. Examples of such
formatting are space before, space after, keep lines together, and keep with
next.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
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"Ridge Kennedy" wrote in message
...
In a doc, (Office 2003, Word, XP (toolsoptions"All" checked visible)
there is a square black dot to the left of the text boundary -- one for
each paragraph with heading styles 1-4. No dot for headings 5- and lower.
I know I've seen something about the dot somewhere, but can't find it.
What's the dot about and what, if anything, does it do?

Ridge

You are magnificent. Thanks. R.

Ridge Kennedy wrote:

You are magnificent. Thanks. R.

(re the dots) Yes they are Ridge! I'm a relative beginner but I
actually knew the answer to that one (from previously having my mystery
solved here) and was about to give it when I was pipped to the post by
the experts. It's all to do with the keep with next option.