Monday, June 28, 2010

A Blot on my Landscape


Every time I open a Word document I get this - see below. I can't remove it by normal means ie the cross top right or delete on file. How it came about - I was trying to send an attachment which needed to have a separate title page. I think I tried INSERT and probably clicked a number of options with this tiresome result.

Now I can only post from Dashboard which is not ideal. Before I send for the cavalry - has anyone a clue how to rectify my stupidity?



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13 comments:

Kevin Musgrove said...

Easy, honest. Somewhere on your toolbar at the top of the screen you've got a button with this paragraph symbol. This is the "display formatting symbols" button. If you click on it the blot will disappear.

It toggles on and off. The blot's not doing anything, it's just showing you that you're at the end of a paragraph. You'll also see dots for spaces and odd things like that. Useful for checking on formatting errors but as confusing as hell otherwise.

HTH

kenju said...

I hope Kevin was able to help, since I know nothing.

My neighbor called me today to see if I could help her computer and when I went to see, it was a Mac, about which I know more than nothing!!

angryparsnip said...

I have to call my son in Japan who then logs onto my computer and in two nano seconds fixes something I have been trying to fix for two days.

Love the screen picture ...

cheers, parsnip

Mage said...

Yup, it's a Paragraph marking. If you feel totally lost and want to be even more confused, check the help menue. But yes, a toggle switch will get rid of it. Thanks so much for your nice notes. :)

Kim Ayres said...

See the bit on your toolbar where it says "100%" in a white box - a few bits to the left of your Font selection?

Right next to it on the left is the thing Kevin mentioned - see, it looks exactly like the symbol on your page. Click that and it will vanish off the page

Pat said...

Kim and Kevin; I followed your instructions and the funny mark disappeared but it is the whole thing - which is like a three inch bar on my Word page which I'm trying to get shut of - so that I just have a blank page as normal with the usual tool bar.

Judy: I know how you feel.

Parsnip: I left a message with my son but he must be out.

Maggie: as you see my problem is bigger than just the para sign.
And you're right : the help line confuses me even more.

Pat said...

Kevin and Kim: if I could bring the bottom border down it would be more or less normal I think.

Pat said...

Kim and Kevin: I've just clicked the enlarge at top right hand corner and that seems to have worked on a couple of docs. I'll try again tomorrow when I feel fresher. Thank you both so much for your time and trouble.xoxox

Gadjo Dilo said...

I believe the first step is usually to not refer to it as your own stupidity but instead blame Microsoft! :)

Kim Ayres said...

Hi Pat,

When you have it like it's displayed in your photo, you can grab the bottom right corner with the mouse and resize it, width and height at the same time.

The other thing I'm not sure if you are referring to it or not, but is how the page is displayed.

Go to the menu bar and click on "View" - then choose "Normal" - is that what you're looking for? If not, click back on "Print Layout"

Granny Annie said...

My cure for such ills is to go to system restore and set the restart time at a date before the unwanted document appeared. That always fixes everything.

Eryl said...

I have absolutely no idea, but I do like your picture.

Pat said...

Gadjo: lovely to see you again. Don't be a stranger:)

Kim: I'm very grateful for those useful tips and have printed them out to join the file of 'Kim's useful tips.' Thanks to you and the usual suspects I am now happily back to normal. Funny how one's brain seizes up when something untoward happens to one's blog.

Grannie Annie: Thank you. That's another useful tip I shall store:)

Eryl: It's comforting to know I'm not the only computer air-head - although I don't think with your fierce intelligence you are really.