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Summary: A backwards P is probably a paragraph mark. If you're seeing a backwards P it's easy to turn off, but also tells me you should change something else too. In my outlook email I now have what looks like a letter "p" and back arrows, at the end of each line! How do I remove them? What you're seeing are probably paragraph marks. The fact that you're seeing them is benign, and easy to turn off. But it also tells me a little bit about your configuration. While it's really a matter of personal preference, I see it as a sign of a larger problem. • First, you're probably seeing something very similar to this:
The font may be different, so the appearance might not be identical, but at the end of each line is a paragraph mark. Question 1, of course, is if it's a "paragraph" mark, why is it at the end of every line? This is one of the differences between plain text and "rich" text email. In rich text, each paragraph is represented as a single line - it's then broken into multiple lines as it's displayed to fit the window. Try it sometime in your word processor - resize the window and you'll see each paragraph "re-wrap" to fit the screen. In plain text, each line is represented by ... a line. Regardless, at the end of the line, whether it represents an entire paragraph, or just a single line, is an end of line marker. Or, in word processing terms, an paragraph mark. So why do I keep coming back to "word processing" when all you're doing is editing email? Because you're using Microsoft Word as your email editor. And Microsoft Word is first and foremost a word processor. "I strongly recommend not using Microsoft Word as your
email editor in Outlook."
In Word you can turn off the display of paragraph marks several different ways. In Tools, Options, on the View tab, you'll see the Paragraph marks option:
Simply uncheck that. If that setting is unchecked already, you may be viewing all non-printable characters. If you see a dot everywhere there's a space, such as between words, this is likely to be the problem. SHIFT+CTRL+* will turn that on and off, including paragraph marks. Now, you'll note that I said I see this as a sign of a larger problem ... so what's the larger problem? Using Microsoft Word to edit email. Word is a fine, fine word processor. I use it regularly. But in my opinion, it's overkill for editing email. Word is a big program packed with lots of features that aren't (or shouldn't be) used in email. If you're close to marginal on memory, Word can be particularly slow. The rich text it produces is notoriously bloated, meaning that the resulting email is much larger than it needs to be to convey the same look and feel to your recipients. I strongly recommend not using Microsoft Word as your email editor in Outlook. To turn it off, and use Outlook's internal, "leaner and meaner" editor, in Outlook hit Tools, Options, and in the resulting dialog click on the Mail Format dialog. Then uncheck both "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages" and "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to read Rich Text e-mail messages" (you may see a different version of Word listed depending on what you have installed):
Once you do that email editing and viewing should be a little quicker for you, and your emails will also be smaller in size. And you won't see any unexpected paragraph marks. Related:
Article 10667 | Posted August 29, 2006 |
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We are currently making it company policy to have Word as our editor as quite a few people here need to insert hyperlinks to documents instead of attaching documents. Inserting hyperlinks in an email is much easier with Word as Outlook editor. Would you be able to let me know the reasons for not having this? Is it only email size? I would appreciate your comments. I know that there were issues pre 2003 version but thought they may have been ironed out. We are using Office 2003.
Vera Hawkins
Posted by: Vera Hawkins at October 31, 2006 2:00 PMYou hit on one: Word generates horrible HTML. You don't see it unless you pay attention to the size of the message, or actually take steps to look at the result. If you send email to people outside your company, the results can be quite messy if they're not also using Outlook and/or Word.
One particular frustration is that it's nearly impossible to control the formatting when you *reply* to a message that was created with Word as the email editor. (I say "nearly" because it often turns out that if you edit in *exactly* the right sequence, you *might* be able to do what you want, but it's certainly not obvious, and is quite frustrating until you've figured out the magic incantation.)
And finally - Word is huge. It's a big, fat application. Using it for email is like trying to use a chainsaw to open a can of tuna. Yes, you can do it, but the process and results are messy.
I don't quite understand how inserting a hyperlink is easier, to be honest. Is it really all about that one feature?
Posted by: Leo Notenboom at October 31, 2006 4:36 PMYou Rock! I was blazing out an email and must of accidentially hit the combo to cause this backwards P sh##. Thanks a million!
Posted by: Rob at December 13, 2006 12:18 PMThanks Leo, you hit the target right on. I must have accidentally hit the asterik and caused all this headache. Us old people get real frustrated when we can't figure something out. So, thanks for saving a few more gray hairs. Pat
Posted by: PAT GALLOWAY at December 19, 2006 6:10 PMExcellent, thing was I knew what it was, as ive done it before, just couldnt remember. Thanks for your help ! Steve
Posted by: Steve Maz at February 19, 2007 3:28 AMActually, that didn't work. The paragraph marks were still showing in Outlook, even though they were disabled in Word 2003. The solution was to start a new email, click Tools, then Options, then the View tab and deselect the 'All' option for Formatting Marks.
Posted by: Kevin at May 1, 2007 10:48 AMHi Leo:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE GREAT ADVICE! You were right on. You possibly saved me hours of frustration.
Jim
Posted by: Jim at September 21, 2007 4:41 PMTHANK YOU! I had the same problem with my microsoft word, googled "backwards P" and saw your answer. Thanks!!
Posted by: Kate at November 17, 2007 1:55 PMAt the risk of being boringly repetitive - THANKS! And I'm ditching Word as Outlook's editor at work and at home!
Posted by: Andrew at February 27, 2008 7:39 AMThank you so very much!! Super Helpful!
Posted by: Olga at August 18, 2008 10:33 AM