I am an untrained beginner. Suddenly when I type in the text for a new
document, it displays little character symbols and puts a dot between every
word. How do I turn that off? They disappear in the printout of document.

Click on the "Show All" button on the formatting toolbar. It is called a
pillcrow and looks sort of like a backwards P. (It is the same as the little
character symbols that appear at the end of your paragraphs.)
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/basic_formatting.htm
--

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://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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"Beebeee" wrote in message
news
I am an untrained beginner. Suddenly when I type in the text for a new
document, it displays little character symbols and puts a dot between
every
word. How do I turn that off? They disappear in the printout of document.

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

--
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.

"Beebeee" wrote in message
news
I am an untrained beginner. Suddenly when I type in the text for a new
document, it displays little character symbols and puts a dot between
every
word. How do I turn that off? They disappear in the printout of document.

Many people find this a convenience, so that they can see some simple
formatting elements. It is helpful, e.g., to see if you have put too many
spaces between words. But you can toggle it off/on by clicking on the
Show/Hide icon (Toggle means when it is on you turn it off by clicking, or
when it is off you turn it on by click; each click switches to the
alternative state). In Word 2000/2002 this shows up on one of my task bars
in the upper right corner of the Word screen with that backward P (I did not
know it had a name: Pillcrow).

"Beebeee" wrote in message
news
I am an untrained beginner. Suddenly when I type in the text for a new
document, it displays little character symbols and puts a dot between
every
word. How do I turn that off? They disappear in the printout of document.