You've got Dot-Leader tab formatting. Are you sure it's occuring EVERY
document? If so, then it's stuck in your normal.dot file and you may need to
troubleshoot it. See:
http://www.officearticles.com/word/a...osoft_word.htm
http://www.officearticles.com/word/s...osoft_word.htm

************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"Wowbagger" none wrote in message
...
In my documents whenever I hit tab I get a series of dots that fill the
tabbed-over space. These dots actually print along with the page. How do
I make this stop (and what purpose does this feature serve?)

Word 2003

Thanks

In my documents whenever I hit tab I get a series of dots that fill the
tabbed-over space. These dots actually print along with the page. How do I
make this stop (and what purpose does this feature serve?)

Word 2003

Thanks

Wowbagger wrote:
In my documents whenever I hit tab I get a series of dots that fill
the tabbed-over space. These dots actually print along with the
page. How do I make this stop (and what purpose does this feature
serve?)

Word 2003

Thanks

The tabstop your tab goes to is defined with a "dot leader". From your
description, it sounds like that definition is in the Normal.dot template,
so you'll have to fix it there (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm).

To remove the leader in existing documents, first select any paragraphs that
contain the tabs. Then go to Format Tabs, select that tabstop, and click
the None button in the Leader section of the dialog. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm for more about this.

Dot leaders are usually used when you have a column of items on the left,
corresponding numbers (as in a Table of Contents or a price list) on the
right, and dots to connect them for easier reading.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org