Change formatting

Question

What is the "degree sign" between words in a text document? It is forcing line breaks in the middle of words and other places I don't want. How do I eliminate them all from a document?

I am not able to include a copy of text containing them: even though I turned on the "Show/hide paragraph markings" button, the "degree marks" don't show with copy & paste.

This is not actually a degree symbol - it just looks like one.

Answer 1

The material was copied from a website.

With text copied from a website, there are other causes for unexpected line breaks (besides nonbreaking spaces). See http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/CleanWebText.htm .

Answer 2

The degree sign represents a nonbreaking space. Two words separated by such a space will always be on the same text line. Read more about nonprinting characters in Suzanne S. Barnhill's article at http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/NonprintChars.htm . (It is an http link which means that your browser may display a warning. However, the web site is safe, maintained by one of the Microsoft Word MVPs.)

Too many nonbreaking spaces in a document may cause a strange look, with text lines running short.

You can use Find & Replace (Ctrl+H in Word for Windows) and replace ^s with an ordinary space (just type in a space in the "Replace with" box).

   

EDIT: It seems you already tried the Find & Replace method. See my other reply for more suggestions.

Answer 3

Hi Chez.

What you are seeing is most likely a manual line break or optional hyphen in Microsoft Word from Microsoft 365, not a degree symbol. These hidden formatting marks can force words to break in the wrong place. To remove them from the whole document, press Ctrl + H, select More, choose Special, then pick Manual Line Break or Optional Hyphen and replace them with a space or nothing, then select Replace All.

Was this text typed in Word or pasted from a website or PDF? That helps confirm if the formatting came from another source.