In MS Word getting "L SEP" or "LSEP" boxes showing up in the documents.

Question

We have Macintosh Computers, and are running Office 365.  On some MS Word documents we are all of the sudden seeing a box with "L SEP" in it.  

  Below is an example. This is a document that a user has been using for months, or longer.  Now all of the sudden the ------  box appears randomly throughout it.  I copied one box and enlarged it so that you can see it easier.    What is causing this, and how can we turn it off???   And yes we can highlight it and delete it, but that is a pain in the butt when it is all over a document!

Answer 1

I am using Word 2016, and this worked for me. That means that it may not work for you, and I would have no idea why.

Anyway, just open the MS Word "Find and Replace" box and search for:

^u8232

This at least let me search my document quickly, and once found each LSEP I could delete it, or replace it with a line break (^l) or a paragraph break (^p) as I felt was approptiate.

Answer 2

What you're seeing is called a Line Separator [Unicode Character U+2028]. How it displays depends entirely on the font being used: If the font is compliant the character displays as a space, otherwise it displays as that [or possibly some other] symbol. It's one of many invisible encoding characters included when content is copied from other sources... especially web sites.

Regrettably I haven't found a definitive means of performing a global removal. It doesn't conform to any of the non-printing or special characters recognized in Word's Advanced Find & Replace nor can it be found when pasted into that dialog. I believe wholesale removal would have to be done programmatically or possibly using HTML.

Answer 3

Hi,

We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused by the problem.

From the description provided, we understand that suddenly there were unexpected symbols in Word document which you’re using from long ago. So, when we tried to search about this, we found a thread with similar thread where the problem encounter when the document contains a font i.e. is not installed on your Mac. For you reference, you can refer to this article: The document I opened contains unexpected symbols and characters and check the outcome by trying the solution provided in it.

If the solution in article doesn’t help, please confirm the following scenarios for moving further:

a. Does this problem happens to specific Word document or all the documents?

b. What happens when you try to change the font? Does that make any difference?

c. Your Word application version. (Open Word application> Click on Word in Menu bar> About Word)

Appreciate your understanding.

Regards,

Chitrahaas

Answer 4

Hi,

Please share if there is any update at your end.

Thanks,

Chitrahaas

Answer 5

This happens when you copy and paste from a .pdf document that was opened using Mac Computer with Preview.

I don't have a solution for this but to avoid the LSEP from appearing, when you copy from the .pdf file that is opened with Mac computer using Preview, use Paste Special on the Word Doc then select Paste Special then as Unformatted Text or Unformatted Unicode Text.

Alternatively, don't use Mc Preview.

Download Adobe Reader to open .pdf files.

With Adobe Reader even if you copy and paste directly to MS Word document the LSEP will not appear. 

Hope this helps

BK