Turn off paragraph collapse/expand arrows in word 2013 / How do you remove all instances of expand/collapse in Word 2016?

Since the expand/collapse triangles display for paragraphs to which "Outline level" formatting have been applied, what you can do is remove that formatting.

More specifically, "Outline level" must be set to "Body Text." You can make the modification for selected text, if you display the Paragraph dialog box.

Note that you can't change the "Outline level" for paragraphs to which the built-in heading styles have been applied.

 I sort of understand what you mean but have no clue on how to do it.

How do I set /determine Outline level and then set it to "Body Text ?

The documents I edit are not mostly my own creation. Thus I have no clue if the Outline level" for paragraphs to which the built-in heading styles is being used or not.

 I want to rid entire document of the (E/C) markers not just selected paragraphs.

Is this not why we have a scroll bar ? If I need to compare page 1 to page 100 in the same document. I Personallu would open two copies of the same file, One on each monitor, NOT use (E/C) markers.

MRGCAV

If one had a full version of Office pre 2007 and opened up a post 2013 Office document in the earlier version ,Suzanne S. Barnhill's idea might work. The markers were added in office 2013.

The MS addon to open DOCX Documents in early office versions would be needed.   KB # ????

  You can install (carefully in different folders) more then one version of office on the same computer so long as they are installed chronologically to give defaults to the most recent version.

I have done it. I avoided the new ribbon menu for years.

I will have to find a copy of Office 2003 or 2007 and try it.

Anyone got a copy of office 2003 laying around ?

You can modify the "Outline Level" setting by:

1. click on the Modify Styles button at the bottom of the Styles Pain <sic>

2a. Find the specific style you want to modify in the style list. single click to select it

2b Click on the Modify button to display the Modify Style dialog

3 Click on the Format drop down button > Paragraph command to display the Paragraph dialog

4. In the Indents and Spacing tab, click on the Outline level drop down and select "Body text"

OK out of the dialogs to save the change

Wonderful. It appears you can't change the Outline level of the default heading style.

OK, so the workaround is "simple". Create copies of the heading styles, based on the default styles and change the outline level there.

After creating your copies of the heading styles, do a find and replace to exchange the default styles with yours.

@ When Word ‘Headings’ aren’t really headings
http://new.office-watch.com/2016/when-word-headings-arent-really-headings/
We’ve received a lot of feedback and questions about Word’s Table of Contents.  Many questions come down to a core misunderstanding about Word – what Word calls ‘Headings’ aren’t really headings at all – they are outline levels.
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Of course, if you remove the outline level, you won't be able to automatically generate the TOC. You will have to define TOC field codes for the TOC to generate from. That is one of the "magic" properties mentioned in this article:

@ Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles?                    2010 04 23          Shauna Kelly
16 reasons to use Word's built-in heading styles. Word's built-in heading styles have "magic" properties that you can't recreate in custom styles.
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Find out the number, or list level, or outline level, that is applied to a list-numbered paragraphs, using VBA
https://wordmvp.com/FAQs/Numbering/ListString.htm
This article gives you the VBA required to identify these attributes.
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I'm Soo Confused!   Sweathog quote

So your five steps 1-4 are irrelevant to solving the problem ???

OK, so the workaround is "simple". Create copies of the heading styles, based on the default styles and change the outline level there.

After creating your copies of the heading styles, do a find and replace to exchange the default styles with yours.

If that is your Paragraph by paragraph solution then you missed the point of the topic.

Have you tried your solution in a 100 page document ?

If that is your Paragraph by paragraph solution then you missed the point of the topic.

Have you tried your solution in a 100 page document ?

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Yes, sorry, I documented the process of changing the outline level in Heading 1 (steps 1-4), then after finishing the documentation when I tested it didn't work. It turned out that I couldn't save the change. So instead of deleting the documentation that I'd spent the last 1 minutes creating, I left it in and said in a PC way that it didn't work. After thinking about it a moment I came up with the idea to create a custom style based on default style.

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No, you do not have to manually apply the "fix" paragraph by paragraph. That is precisely the point of using styles. Make the change in one place in each style and it is applied through the document. If, as I documented, the change must be made in a default style, you first have to create a custom version based on the default style.  Then replace the default style with the custom one. One Find/Replace will take care of every occurrence in the document.

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"Outline level" is paragraph formatting; you'll find it in the Paragraph dialog box. Note that you can't change the setting for the built-in headings. To display the Paragraph dialog box, you can right-click a text paragraph and choose Paragraph.

EDIT: When you are modifying a paragraph style, that same dialog box can be accessed via Format > Paragraph in the Modify Style dialog box:

Stefan:

That is applying the change on a single paragraph at a time level. Something that has been made clear they don't want to do. Which is why I've been suggesting making the change at the style level in the new document.

Well, I mentioned the possibility to modify one or more styles in a previous message. But I'll add a clarification that you can access the Paragraph dialog box in the Modify Style dialog box as well. Thanks.

Of course, if styles haven't been used consistently in the document, changing selected paragraphs may have to be the first line of attack, anyway.