How do I get rid of the tiny dots under word in Word and Outlook 2016?

Ever since migrating to Office 365, Word and Outlook have been pestering me with tiny dots under the words in large parts of the texts. Not all texts, but some. They are not always there, but suddenly Word or Outlook decides to splash dots all over the place without any explanation.

This is endlessly annoying. It clutters the view and is distracting.

Others have suggested it is related to hidden text, but there is no hidden text in these documents.

I have found that it may be related to so-called "intelligent services" and "smart lookup".

Well there is nothing intelligent in forcing users to watch black dots everywhere if they are not interested in such services.

Here is an example of what it looks like.

How do I get rid of such dots once and for all?

PS: sometimes there are even dots in empty table cells and blank lines under the paragraph symbol.

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I don't have Word 2016, so I don't have Smart Lookup, but another thread suggests that you can disable "intelligent services" from the General tab of File | Options (though others indicate the option isn't there). You might also see https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2135211-has-anyone-tried-to-disable-smart-lookup-in-office-2106 and https://officesmart.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/enable-or-disable-microsoft-office-365-intelligent-services/.
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Thanks but it is already disabled under Options:

One of the articles you link shows a screenshot of a Registry key called InsightEnabled. I don't have that key. I was unable to find any references to such a key by searching. Before trying to add such a key, I would like to know if it could cause any harm to try.

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Last updated May 16, 2024 Views 4,142 Applies to: