Microsoft KB Archive/211872

= WD2000: Changing Text Formatting Also Changes Paragraph Formatting =

Article ID: 211872

Article Last Modified on 12/6/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q211872





SYMPTOMS
If you select all of the text in a paragraph, excluding the paragraph mark, and change the font formatting of the text, the formatting changes are applied to the paragraph mark also. This affects any subsequent paragraphs when you press ENTER from any point within this paragraph. This functionality is different from versions of Word earlier than Microsoft Word 97.

NOTE: To see the paragraph mark and other nonprinting characters, click the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar.



CAUSE
When you apply font formatting to a selection of text that spans a paragraph, Word assumes you want to change the paragraph formatting even though you did not select the paragraph mark.



WORKAROUND
To format all of the text within a paragraph without affecting the paragraph formatting (excluding the paragraph mark), select all but one character of the paragraph and then apply the font formatting. Then select the remaining character and apply the same font formatting.



MORE INFORMATION
In some earlier versions of Word, if you want to apply character formatting to the paragraph mark, you must select it before you apply the font formatting; otherwise, the paragraph mark does not take on the new character formatting.

In Word 97 and 2000, if all of the text in the paragraph is selected (excluding the paragraph mark), character formatting changes are applied not only to the text of the paragraph but also to the paragraph mark.

Selecting white space before or after the text has no effect on this behavior.

