Tab character

An arrow.

Space

A dot that appears between words.

Nonbreaking space

A nonbreaking space (nonbreaking space: A space that's used to prevent multiple words from breaking if they fall at the end of a line. For example, you can prevent "Microsoft Office" from breaking; instead, the entire item moves to the beginning of the next line.) appears as a raised circle between words.

To insert a nonbreaking space, press CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR.

Text-wrapping break

A symbol that indicates that text is wrapping below an object, such as a picture.

Page break

Indicated with a dotted line in normal view.

Section break

Indicated with two dotted lines when your document contains different types of section-level formatting.

Section formatted as a single column

Section formatted as two columns

Field code brace

Some information — such as a date that is automatically updated, or index entries — is inserted as a field (field: A set of codes that instructs Microsoft Word to insert text, graphics, page numbers, and other material into a document automatically. For example, the DATE field inserts the current date.). If field codes are being displayed, you will see curved braces, for example, {DOCPROPERTY "Manager" \* Upper}.

Paragraph mark

Appears at the end of a paragraph . The paragraph mark contains paragraph formatting information.

Manual line break

Appears at the end of a line when you press SHIFT+ENTER.

If text on your screen is underlined, but you didn't apply underline formatting, the underlines could appear for any of the following reasons.

Red or green wavy underline

When you automatically check spelling and grammar, Microsoft Word uses wavy red underlines to indicate possible spelling errors and wavy green underlines to indicate possible grammatical errors.

Red wavy underline in an e-mail header

Word automatically checks the names in the e-mail header against names in the Address Book. If multiple names are found that match the name you type, a red wavy line appears under the name, indicating that you must choose a name.

Blue or other color underline

When you automatically check the consistency of your formatting, Word uses wavy blue underlines to indicate possible instances of inconsistent formatting.

Purple wavy underlines (wavy vertical lines may also appear in the margin)

In an XML (Extensible Markup Language (XML): A condensed form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that enables developers to create customized tags that offer flexibility in organizing and presenting information.) document, Word uses purple wavy vertical lines and underlines to indicate XML structure that does not adhere to the XML Schema that is attached to the document.

Note  XML features, except for saving documents as XML with the Word XML schema, are available only in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and stand-alone Microsoft Office Word 2003.

Purple or other color underline

Followed hyperlinks appear as purple and underlined by default.

Red or other color single or double underline (vertical bars may also appear in the left or right margin)

By default, newly inserted text is marked as underlined when the Track Changes feature is used. Vertical bars  — called changed lines — may also appear in the left or right border of text that contains tracked changes (tracked change: A mark that shows where a deletion, insertion, or other editing change has been made in a document.).

Purple dotted underline

Smart tags appear with purple dotted underlines beneath their text. You can use smart tags to perform actions (actions: Tasks that can be performed by using smart tags. For example, adding a name to a Microsoft Outlook Contacts folder is one action that might be taken with a person name smart tag.) in Word that you normally would open other programs to do.

Balloons and revision marks show insertions or deletions, formatting changes, and comments.

To facilitate online review, Word allows you to easily make and view tracked changes and comments (comment: A note or annotation that an author or reviewer adds to a document. Microsoft Word displays the comment in a balloon in the margin of the document or in the Reviewing Pane.) in a document. In order to preserve the layout of your document, Word shows some markup (markup: Comments and tracked changes such as insertions, deletions, and formatting changes. View markup when you want to process tracked changes and comments. Print a document with markup to keep a record of changes made to a document.) elements in the text of the document while others are displayed in balloons (balloons: In print layout view or Web layout view, markup balloons show markup elements, such as comments and tracked changes, in the margins of your document. Use these balloons to easily see and respond to reviewers' changes and comments.) that appear in the margin.

Some parts of a table can be seen only if you display all formatting marks by clicking Show/Hide on the Standard toolbar.

A table cell

The smallest unit of a table.

A table column

A vertical cross-section of cells.

A table row

A horizontal cross-section of cells.

Table move handle

Appears at the top corner of a table, so you can move it easily.

Smart Tag Actions button and indicator

Smart tags perform actions in Word that you normally would open other programs to do. The purple dotted lines beneath text in your document indicate the smart tags, and you click the Smart Tag Actions button to perform tasks.

Smart Tag Actions button

Smart tag indicator

AutoCorrect Options button

The AutoCorrect Options button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that was automatically corrected. It changes to a button icon when you point to it. If you sometimes don't want text to be corrected, you can undo a correction or turn AutoCorrect options on or off by clicking the button and making a selection.

Paste Options button

The Paste Options button appears just below your pasted selection after you paste text. When you click the button, a list appears that lets you determine how the information is pasted into your document. The available options depend on the type of content you are pasting, the program you are pasting from, and the format of the text in the area you are pasting to.

You may see squares, plus signs, or minus signs when you are in outline view.

Link text box "pitcher" indicator

This symbol appears when you are linking two text boxes. . Press ESC if you do not plan to link text to another text box and want to dismiss the pitcher pointer.

Empty rectangle

An empty rectangle could be a text box (text box: A movable, resizable container for text or graphics. Use text boxes to position several blocks of text on a page or to give text a different orientation from other text in the document.), a text frame (frame: A container that you can resize and position anywhere on the page. To position text or graphics that contain comments, footnotes, endnotes, or certain fields, you must use a frame instead of a text box.), a picture placeholder, or a drawing canvas (drawing canvas: An area on which you can draw multiple shapes. Because the shapes are contained within the drawing canvas, they can be moved and resized as a unit.).

Sound control

Indicates a background sound in a Web page.

Video Control

Indicates a video or movie.

In an XML (Extensible Markup Language (XML): A condensed form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that enables developers to create customized tags that offer flexibility in organizing and presenting information.) document, Word may display XML tags in the body of the document.

Note  XML features, except for saving documents as XML with the Word XML schema, are available only in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and stand-alone Microsoft Office Word 2003.