Microsoft KB Archive/901125

= Unusual marks may appear in a Word document =

Article ID: 901125

Article Last Modified on 12/29/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Word 2003
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

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SYMPTOMS
When you work in a Microsoft Word document, unusual marks may appear in the document.



CAUSE
This issue may occur if you turn on the option to show formatting marks in the document.

The formatting marks that you may see in a Word document are listed in the following table.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, turn off the option to show formatting marks. To do this, use one of the following methods:
 * On the Standard toolbar, click the Show/Hide button.
 * On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab. Under Formatting marks, click to clear the check boxes for the marks that you do not want to appear in the document.
 * Press CTRL+SHIFT+*.



Word 2003, Word 2002, Word 2000, and Word 97
Besides the marks that are listed in the &quot;Cause&quot; section, the following marks may also appear in a document in any version of Word that is listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section.

Red or green wavy underlines in the body text and in the headers and footers
Word includes a feature that lets you automatically check the spelling and the grammar in a document. When this feature is turned on, Word uses wavy red underlines to indicate possible spelling errors. Additionally, Word uses wavy green underlines to indicate possible grammatical errors.

To turn off this feature, follow these steps:
 * 1) On the Tools menu, click Options.
 * 2) On the Spelling & Grammar tab, click to clear the Check spelling as you type check box and the Check grammar as you type check box.

Red wavy underlines in the header of an e-mail message
Word automatically checks the names in the header of an e-mail message against the names in the Address Book. If Word finds multiple names that match the name that you type, a red wavy line appears under the name. The red wavy underline indicates that you must choose one name from the matching names. To select the name that you want, right-click the underlined name, and then click the correct name.

Purple underlines in the body text
By default, followed hyperlinks appear as purple, underlined text.

Red underlines in the body text and vertical bars in the margin
By default, newly inserted text is marked by a single red underline or a double red underline when you use the Track Changes feature. Vertical bars, called changed lines, may also appear in the left margin or right margin of the text that contains the tracked changes.

Word 2003 and Word 2002
Additionally, the following marks may also appear in a Microsoft Office Word 2003 document or in a Microsoft Word 2002 document.

Blue underlines in the body text
Word includes a feature that lets you automatically check the consistency of your formatting. When this feature is turned on, Word uses wavy blue underlines to indicate possible instances of inconsistent formatting. To turn off this feature, follow these steps:
 * 1) On the Tools menu, click Options.
 * 2) On the Edit tab, click to clear the Mark formatting inconsistencies check box.

Purple dotted underlines in the body text and in the headers and footers
A smart tag is indicated by a purple dotted underline. You can use smart tags to perform actions in Word that you would ordinarily start another program to do.

Word 2003
Additionally, the following marks may also appear in a Word 2003 document.

Purple wavy underlines in the body text and wavy vertical lines in the margin
In an XML document, Word uses purple wavy underlines and wavy vertical lines to indicate XML structure that does not follow the XML schema that is attached to the document.

Note XML features are available only in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and in stand-alone versions of Word 2003. However, you can use the Save As command to save a document as XML in any version of Word 2003.

