[Word 2010] - Red dashed rectangle surrounding text

  • Thread starter Thread starter Movie Maniac®
  • Start date Start date
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Movie Maniac®

Hi,
I've been given a doc file and I have to do some editing on it.
There is some text that is surrounded by a red dashed rectangle that
rotates clockwise. It is the first time that I see this and I really do
not know whats up.

Is there anybod that could explain this behaviour and its meaning?
Thanks in advance
 
It sounds like it might be the "marching ants" (or one of the other
choices) "feature" that was included with earlier versions of Word. I
don't know how to turn it on or off directly, but you could select the
paragraph and press Ctrl-Shift-Z or (IIRC) Ctrl-Q, which should remove
the special attributes of the paragraph. (If either of those has a bad
effect, just press Ctrl-Z to Undo it.)
 
,
I've been given a doc file and I have to do some editing on it. There
is some text that is surrounded by a red dashed rectangle that
rotates clockwise. It is the first
time that I see this and I really do not know whats up.
Click to expand...

The document was created in Word 2003? Maybe, you see the "red marching
ants". In Word 2007/2010 this text effect has been eliminated - it is
no longer accessible from the UI.
 
The formatting can still be applied or removed with a macro, but I suspect
that Ctrl+Spacebar (or Peter's suggestion of Ctrl+Shift+Z) will do the
trick.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
(I always avoid mentioning Ctrl-Spacebar because IF Chinese is
installed on your system, that's the Windows command for switching to
Chinese input, and nothing within Word can override it.)

The formatting can still be applied or removed with a macro, but I suspect
that Ctrl+Spacebar (or Peter's suggestion of Ctrl+Shift+Z) will do the
trick.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org




"Movie Maniac®" wrote,
Click to expand...
The document was created in Word 2003? Maybe, you see the "red marching
ants". In Word 2007/2010 this text effect has been eliminated - it is no
longer accessible from the UI.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Il 26/07/2010 13.40, Lisa Wilke-Thissen ha scritto:
,


The document was created in Word 2003?
Click to expand...

I really do not know. It is a technical document, part of an executive
project. It has been compiled from a model.
Maybe, you see the "red marching
ants". In Word 2007/2010 this text effect has been eliminated - it is no
longer accessible from the UI.
Click to expand...

I do not know what "red marching ants" is, unfortunately. I am currently
using office 2010 beta. I tried to save it to docx format, but the
problem persists.

Then I opened the docx with 7zip and took a look at the
word\document.xml file. I found this line of code:
<w:effect w:val="antsRed"/>

so it might be that the "red marching ants" effect is applied :D. Is
this true?

I could try to attach the file if it was possible. I could send it to
anybody who would be so kind to take a look at it.

Thanks to all!
 
We have already told you what it is and how to get rid of it. Did
Ctrl+Spacebar not work?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
Yes, I know that, but I would guess that 99% or more of users can use it
with impunity.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

(I always avoid mentioning Ctrl-Spacebar because IF Chinese is
installed on your system, that's the Windows command for switching to
Chinese input, and nothing within Word can override it.)

The formatting can still be applied or removed with a macro, but I suspect
that Ctrl+Spacebar (or Peter's suggestion of Ctrl+Shift+Z) will do the
trick.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org




"Movie Maniac®" wrote,
Click to expand...
The document was created in Word 2003? Maybe, you see the "red marching
ants". In Word 2007/2010 this text effect has been eliminated - it is no
longer accessible from the UI.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Il 26/07/2010 17.19, Suzanne S. Barnhill ha scritto:
We have already told you what it is and how to get rid of it. Did
Ctrl+Spacebar not work?
Click to expand...

Well, I uset Ctrl+Shift+Z and it worked!

Thanks a lot.
 
Il 26/07/2010 17.19, Suzanne S. Barnhill ha scritto:
We have already told you what it is and how to get rid of it. Did
Ctrl+Spacebar not work?
Click to expand...

Well, I uset Ctrl+Shift+Z and it worked!

Thanks a lot.
 
It is really simple
Marching ants is a text effect, applied through format:font that you need to remove

Select all the text affected
Select menu item format>font
Select text effects in the proceeding dialogue box
and then select none
 
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