What are these symbols

[Dave Davison]

Hi..just downloaded a free PDF file & converted it on line to a Word doc but with one slight anomaly, what are these symbols and how do I delete them so as to edit the text please? Thanks Dave.

[DaveA]

The backwards P is a end of paragraph marker, the other is end of table cell marker.

You have turned on the non printing characters, look for the backwards p icon and click it and that will turn them off.

It appears that each line is a table cell.

[Rudi]

    
Here is a visual of what Dave points to...

Image 029.jpg

[John Gray]

Since the output is a table, select the entire table and convert table to text, with the 'delimiter' between cells=rows being a space character.

[stuck]

To summarise:
1) The on-line PDF to Word conversion has not done a very good job. It has put the text into the cells of a Word table, rather than regular paragraphs.
2) Lines 1-4 and 6 of the screen capture you attached appears to be single cells but Lines 5 & 7 look like two cells.
3) Lines 4 and 7 end in a non-breaking space.

4) You can see the end of of table cell marks and the non-breaking spaces because 'show non-printing characters' is turned on. Dave and Hans posts show you how to turn that feature off again if you wish.
5) You can delete the non-breaking spaces
6) You can't remove the end of table cell markers but the end of table cell markers won't print so in that sense it doesn't mater that you can't remove them.
7) To convert this table into regular text and thus make it a more 'normal' text document / one that you are more likely to be able to reformat/edit as you please, follow the instructions that John gives.

Ken

[Dave Davison]

Thanks for the feed back, all logic to you guys but somewhat vague to me. I know the screen shot showed none printing characters because I hit the
[Ctrl + Shift +*] keys together for the purpose of showing the symbol like a circle in a box and simply wondered if they could be deleted the same way the PILCROWS can be deleted in the paragraph shown below by typing ^p in the "Find" box, then a space in the "Replace" box then "Replace all". Thus lengthening the line of text to a normal length and reducing the number of pages for printing. THANKS Dave.

[HansV]

The character shown below is - as mentioned in previous replies - the marker for the end of a cell in a table.

S1213.png

To get rid of them, you must convert the table to plain text.
- Click in the text.
- Activate the Layout tab of the ribbon (under Table Tools; this is only visible when you're in a table).
- In the Data group, click Convert to Text.
- In the Convert Table to Text dialog, click OK.
- You should now see only paragraph marks ¶. You can replace these with spaces.

[Dave Davison]

..thanks Hans will give that a go tomorrow.........cheers Dave.

[Dave Davison]

tried in vain.........could not get past the instruction [Activate the Layout tab of the ribbon (under Table Tools; this is only visible when you're in a table)
where is that that located please? I also tried saving the PDF as a Plain text file but getting rid of the cell end signs poses the same question. Regards Dave.

[HansV]

In the screenshot below, you see some text outside a table, and some text inside a table. The circles with short lines pointing outwards are the end-of-cell markers.

S1215.png

When the insertion point is not in a table, the ribbon shows the standard tabs:

S1216.png

But when the insertion point is inside a table, you'll see two extra tabs, Design and Layout, under Table Tools:

S1217.png

You can see that the insertion point is in a table here because there is an end-of-cell marker at the end of the line that contains the insertion point.
These extra tabs are only visible when you have placed the insertion point in a table. They will not be visible if the insertion point is outside a table.

So try clicking in a line that ends in an end-of-cell marker, then take a careful look at the ribbon. It will have a different colour on your computer (you have Office 2007, if I remember correctly, while I have Office 2016), but the idea should be the same.

[Rudi]

It can also help to make the table easier to see if you activate its gridlines.
On the Layout tab that Hans's image points to, click on the button "View Gridlines". (Of course your cursor must be in the table to view the ribbon (as Hans mentions).

[Charles Kenyon]

http://addbalance.com/word/nonprinting.htm
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

[Dave Davison]

Thanks gents, [easy when one knows how] another small step for a silver surfer prepared to strain the neurons before they sieze up. Conscious of the old saying, "Use it or lose it". Till the next hurdle comes my way whehn I will delighted to shout for help again. Shalom Dave.