Word: paragraph exactly duplicates itself - even if you change it! XP 4

[NorthNone]

Not a Word wizard, so please bear with me. I've inherited a Word document where one paragraph is duplicated immediately beneath itself. Changes to the first are immediately reflected in its duplicate. This only shows in print layout view, not in other views and it does not print the duplicate.
From the Twilight Zone,
NorthNone

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[Madawc]

I've no idea about the cause. You could get rid of it by copying the entire document and pasting it into a new one using Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text.

THis will of course lose useful formatting along with the anomaly. You might also try cutting just that section, or a little extra around that, and re-posting that unformatted.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10

 

[tf1]

Try turning on hidden characters (Ctrl+Shift+8) and see if the ghost paragraph appears in other views?

If it does, select the hidden ghost paragraph and press Shift+F9: does it turn into a field code?

Regards: tf1

 

[NorthNone]

Madawc: The paste as unformatted text fixes it but the amount of formatting and historical revision history that is destroyed is not worth it.

tf1: I can't select the shadow paragraph, only the first instance of it. Then both are selected. The ghost paragraph does not appear in other views. When I press Shift-F9 it does not turn into a field code.

There is a paragraph marker with no text just before this paragraph. I can select it but I cannot delete it, no matter what I do. Very perplexing. I am at my wits end!

Thanks for the tips


"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[fumei]

This reminds me of something......

Unfortunately, I never did find a way to fix it. A weird corrupt file.

"There is a paragraph marker with no text just before this paragraph. I can select it but I cannot delete it, no matter what I do. Very perplexing. I am at my wits end!"

Which is "this" paragraph? The ghost one? The original one? Is this the last paragraph, or is it just some paragraph in the middle of other text?

faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[NorthNone]

It's the paragraph just before the paragraph that is immediately followed by its shadow.

^p <- can't delete
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[fumei]

Again, is this the last paragraph of the document?

^p <- can't delete
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text" - last paragraph
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text" - ghost

Can you delete #2, in bold?

^p <- can't delete
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"
^p "Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"

BTW: paragraph marks (^p) are at the END. They are terminators. So, really, it should be:

^p <- can't delete
"Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"^p
"Hi, I'm a paragraph with text"^p

This may be another good reason to never have "empty" paragraphs!

faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[NorthNone]

A. It's not the last paragraph of the document
B. I cannot delete #2 in bold
Thanks for your reply!!!

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[Madawc]

Can you get at the unwanted ^p via find / replace?

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10

 

[LizSara]

Shot in the dark but can you copy the paragraph and past it into Notepad, then delete it from your document (therefore deleting the ghost paragraph) and then paste in back in from Notepad. Notepad usually gets rid of formatting and things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ~ Nietzsche"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[kjv1611]

LizSara, I think it is not worth his time going to Notepad - it'd be the same as paste text only... from an earlier post from OP:

The paste as unformatted text fixes it but the amount of formatting and historical revision history that is destroyed is not worth it.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[LizSara]

kjv1611 ~ i was referring to the paragraph that is ghosting only, not the entire document which is what is being referred to earlier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ~ Nietzsche"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[combo]

Anything specific in paragraph formatting?
How big is the document (memory problems)?
Do the duplicate paragraphs appear only on your machine (printer driver)?
Does save the file in rtf format and reopen it change anything? If no, anything specific in the file opened in notepad?

combo

 

[NorthNone]

combo: when I saved it as an RTF file, it crashed. So the answer may be that the file itself it corrupt.
To answer your other questions, there is a long edit history behind the scenes, but otherwise nothing particularly strange about the paragraph formatting. The document is 20 pages or so. The duplicate paragraphs appear on many different computers.
thanks for your time

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[tf1]

NorthNone

That's a good point. Please try SaveAs and choose HTML or failing that, choose XML. If it saves OK, then close it and WOrd, relaunchWOrd, open the neww documetn and SaveAs a .doc again.




Regards: tf1

 

[dodomcsc]

I always hesitate to disagree with any of the posters, however, tf1, you had mentioned having NorthNone toggle the field codes by using Shift+F9. The actual key combination for toggling field codes is Alt+F9.

So, to that end, I almost want to say that NorthNone's issue is one where the original text is set, perhaps, as a bookmark with the shadowed text setup as a cross reference to the orignal (okay....it's a possiblity LOL!).

NorthNone, if you would, do an Alt+F9 and see if you get the field codes and if you do, let us know what those codes say and we should then be able to, collectively, come up with a solution to your issue.

Thanks!

dodomfcg

 

[tf1]

Actually Shift+F9 = ToggleFieldDisplay whereas Alt+F9 is View FieldCodes. Both should have the same affect in this instance.


Regards: tf1

 

[NorthNone]

The only code is a reference to an embedded graphic:
{EMBED PBrush }

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[NorthNone]

tf1: I could save as HTML but it wrecked my many tables and drawing objects...

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

 

[tf1]

But the million dollar question is when you saved back to doc format, did the ghost para return?


Regards: tf1