<sp> Symbol in Word 2003

[MrTBC]

Hi there.
<sp> keeps appearing in my Word documents near to images. Iy's only a problem on one PC as it is fine on others. Any ideas please?

 

[TonyJollans]

What do you mean by <sp>? Can you describe the symbol a bit better. Is it an anchor?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[MrTBC]

Hi there.
It is <sp> - it looks exactly like that, but is not text that you can delete. It does appear to be some kind of anchor.

 

[fumei]

You can not delete it? Can you select it? It looks EXACTLY like <sp>?

Is your document a html file?

I have been trying to get this, and can not.

Tony?

Gerry

 

[MrTBC]

It is a Word file and it looks exactly like this:
<sp>

You can select it but can't delete or overtype it. It appears near some (but not all) pictures and if another user opens one of my Word docs then they can't see it.
Oh, and it prints too!

Weird huh!

Have you seen my other post in this forum too? it provides a bit more info:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1164658&page=1

 

[dcompto]

I see that in Word,
Tools > Options
General tab
there is a setting for Blue background, white text,
but I don't know how it would get turned on by a keystroke combination.

As to <sp>, I know it is an HTML tag for "space", but I haven't been able to duplicate the problem with a Word document.

 

[TonyJollans]

I have never seen a symbol like this.

If you can select it, it suggests it is document content of some sort - might it be hidden text? If you can't delete it that rather suggests something else but it's worth checking - if for no other reason than to rule it out.

Can you move the symbol by clicking and dragging?

If you delete the picture, does the symbol go too?

Not sure what else to ask.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Good questions Tony. This one is a real puzzle, as it seems like a tag, but I can not duplicate this at all. I am very interested to know if, when you select it, whether you can move it.

Also, if you can select it, can you copy it? Can you, say, paste it into a new document.

Try selecting it, then running this code - and believe me, I know this is a stretch....

Sub Huh()
Dim var
Dim oRange As Word.Range
Dim i As Integer
Dim ListAscii As String
Set oRange = Selection.Range
  i = Len(Selection.Text)

For var = 1 To i
ListAscii = Asc(oRange.Characters.Item(i - (var - 1))) _
     & "  " & ListAscii
Next
Set oRange = Nothing
MsgBox "Selection text is " & Selection.Text & vbCrLf _
        & "Length is " & Len(Selection.Text) & " _
          characters." & vbCrLf & _
         "Using the following ASCII characters" & vbCrLf & _
         ListAscii
End Sub

Let us know what it comes up with. I find it very curious that you can select, but not delete. How can it be ordinary text? Something is weird here.

Gerry

 

[MrTBC]

Thanks very much guys.
I'm sure I could get rid of it by deleting my normal.dot - but I'm interested to know what it is!
1. Deleting the picture doesn't get rid of it
2. It won't copy to the clipboard, i.e. when I paste I get what was last on the clipboard
3. If I highlight it I can change it's font (!)
4. If I switch off Hidden Text it still shows
5. I can highlight all of it, but not individual characters
6. It shows when printed
7. I'm having problems running the code due to security restrictions here I'm afraid

 

[TonyJollans]

Is it a field? If you press Alt+F9 (may need to do it twice) does it change?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[MrTBC]

Nope - not a field!

 

[TonyJollans]

Well, it's not a Field, it's not hidden text - but does appear to be text, a single character or symbol. It's odd that you can't copy it.

Might it be a formatting mark? Does it appear/disappear when you show/hide formatting - the pilcrow (backwards P) on the standard toolbar.

If not a formatting mark, might it be a symbol in a font that no other PC has? Can you do this:

Select it
Go into the VBE (Alt+F11)
In the Immediate Window (Ctrl+G) ...

Type ?Ascw(Seelction) - press Enter and note the response
Type ?Len(Selection) - press Enter and note the response

If the length is greater than 1, try ..
?Ascw(Right(Selection,1))

Post the results (if any).

I'm struggling to think of much else to check.


Enjoy,
Tony

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[MrTBC]

No - it's not a formatting mark either!
The first code gave a runtime error.
The second code returned '1'.

 

[TonyJollans]

The runtime error is probably my typo!

Unless you already did this, in which case I may have to give up, try ?Ascw(Selection)

Enjoy,
Tony

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[MrTBC]

Sorry no I didn't spot it!
It returns '8'.

 

[TonyJollans]

I'm not sure this gets closer to solving the puzzle but 8 is the character code for a backspace.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Surely you must be able to run SOME code. The code is nothing overtly bad. It just goes through the selection and gives some info about it. I was trying to get a full ASCII listing of what that <sp> IS. I find it very very odd that you can select it (and therefore you must be able to run code on it), but can't delete it. SOMETHING is weird here.

Gerry

 

[TonyJollans]

Just had a wild thought and it's something I don't really know about. Backspace isn't a displayable character normally (or ever in my experience) but what if you're using (or somehow set up for) a right-to-left language (even if accidentallY)?

If you Select the character and do Format > Reveal Formatting, do you see any clues in the Task Pane?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[MrTBC]

When I select it and choose 'Reveal Formatting' it shows as 'Sample Text' in the task pane.

 

[fumei]

Please confirm that. You have Reveal Formatting task pane visible...and then select the <sp>. "Sample Text" is still showing in Reveal Formatting?

Gerry