Microsoft Word Paragraph Mark - Justification Breaks Words Between Lines Randomly

Working on a shared document that was returned to me.  The other computer reformatted all the paragraphs and made the paragraph's sentences break at random points, mid-word between lines.  I can't find a way to reformat and create a normal paragraph line break between words or at a hyphenation point.

The only apparent fix is, with Display, Show All Formatting Marks on, to Cut and Paste another paragraph mark from another "clean" document over the top of the bad paragraph mark.  The document is quite long so this isn't a great option.  I've tried numerous things in Justification, Hyphenation, Compatibility, Layout and Paragraph without success.  Attached is example of the problem with the text of the Gettysburg Address pasted into the "bad" document. 

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Working on a shared document that was returned to me.  The other computer reformatted all the paragraphs and made the paragraph's sentences break at random points, mid-word between lines.  I can't find a way to reformat and create a normal paragraph line break between words or at a hyphenation point.

The only apparent fix is, with Display, Show All Formatting Marks on, to Cut and Paste another paragraph mark from another "clean" document over the top of the bad paragraph mark.  The document is quite long so this isn't a great option.  I've tried numerous things in Justification, Hyphenation, Compatibility, Layout and Paragraph without success.  Attached is example of the problem with the text of the Gettysburg Address pasted into the "bad" document. 

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Try copying everything EXCEPT the final paragraph mark in the document and pasting it into a new document.
Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Doug, Thank you for the response. I tried it and unfortunately it didn't make any difference.  I'm perplexed.  

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What happens if you try a different font?
Stefan Blom
Microsoft 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator (Office)
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
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Please note that I do not work for Microsoft
MVP program info: https://mvp.microsoft.com/
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Try copying everything EXCEPT for the final paragraph mark in the document and pasting it into a new document.
Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Unfortunately, it doesn't make any difference.  I can also copy the bad paragraph (with it's paragraph mark) to a new document and it creates the same effect.  It's something embedded in the individual paragraph marking and no matter what I do the effect won't go away.  Darnedest thing.  

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What kinds of marks appear at the line ends (e.g. ↵ (manual line breaks) or ¶ (paragraph breaks)), when Word's formatting display is 'on'?
Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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Reply In reply to deleted message
Sorry.  Didn't think it had posted.

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All paragraph breaks.  No manual or other breaks.

Being able to copy just the paragraph mark ¶ to a new document and it still having the same issue indicates some embedded characteristic (that one would think would be changeable) stored in the mark.

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Try using Find and replace to replace

^p

with

^p

or perhaps a Wildcard replace to replace

^13

with

^p

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Last updated July 18, 2023 Views 2,852 Applies to: