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Word 2016 - Save as Plain Text

In Word 2016, when using save as plain text, multiple new lines are saved to the output that do not exist in the document being saved. This appears to be different to previous versions of Word, including 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003. 

Even if you start a new word document and go straight to Save as, Save as Type = Plain Text (*.txt) these additional lines can be seen. 

How can these new lines be removed?

Hi Daniel, those are the formatting characters, shich are normally invisible in Word Documents, try changing the encoding options on that save dialog, you seem to have text encoding set to MS DOS, try Microsoft Default, ASCII . . . etc. to see if this resolves this issue . . .
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Hi Dave,

The result is the same

When you open the resultant file it contains 14 new lines.  The original document has 1 line.

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Daniel, I would try repairing your Office Installation . . .

Word should not be adding those extra lines and certainly should not be saving the Hard Return character to the Text File . . .

Open Control Panel - Programs and Features
Click on Microsoft Office in the list of installed applications
At the top, click 'Change'
In the resulting dialog click 'Repair'

This should fix any issues you are having with MS Word
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MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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Yes, it does. It is the similar in Word 2013 and Word 2010. It was not this way in Word 97-2007.

These are not formatting characters, exactly, they are empty paragraphs, denoted by the pilcrow formatting characters.

This seems to be an artifact of the conversion process.
Volunteering to "pay forward" the help I've received in the Microsoft user community.

Charles Kenyon
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
wordfaq[at]addbalance[dot]com

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I did check and see that the empty paragraphs are real, not just something that shows up on the conversion window. You can open the .txt file in NotePad and remove them. If you open them in Word and delete them, they will be replaced when you save it.
Volunteering to "pay forward" the help I've received in the Microsoft user community.

Charles Kenyon
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
wordfaq[at]addbalance[dot]com

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Daniel, I would try repairing your Office Installation . . .

Word should not be adding those extra lines and certainly should not be saving the Hard Return character to the Text File . . .

Open Control Panel - Programs and Features
Click on Microsoft Office in the list of installed applications
At the top, click 'Change'
In the resulting dialog click 'Repair'

This should fix any issues you are having with MS Word

I've tried the office repair, but this has made no difference the problem still remains.

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Yes it is possible to remove the lines using notepad, but this prevents any automation, which was the reason for using the save as plain text in the first place.

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I do not see the issue here using Word 2016 Version 1802 (Build 9029.2167 Click-to-Run) Monthly Channel.

Make sure that your normal.dotm template does not contain a whole string of empty paragraphs.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
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Hi All,

I found the cause of the problem, to be with a third party add-in. When the add in is active, it adds 14 lines during conversion to plain text. Disabling the add-in correct the problem.  I'll take this back to the developer of the add-in.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

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Last updated September 30, 2021 Views 3,693 Applies to: