WD: Hidden Text Appearing in File Saved as Text Only

ID: Q28302

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.x, 6.x, 7.x
Microsoft Word for the Macintosh versions 3.x, 4.0, 5.x, 6.x
Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Word, when a document containing hidden text is saved in Text Only format, text formatted as hidden text becomes visible.

CAUSE

When you save a document in Text Only format, all character formatting is lost from the document. Because hidden text is a character format, it is lost along with the rest of the character formatting.

WORKAROUND

To prevent this problem from occurring, delete the hidden text from the file before saving the file in Text Only format. To do this, follow these steps:

Word 98, Word 7.x, Word 6.x, and Word 5.1

1. On the the Edit menu, click Replace.

2. Place the cursor in the Find What Box.

3. On the Format list under the Find What box, click Character (or Font).

4. Under Style, click to clear the Hidden check box.

5. Leave the Replace With box blank and click Replace All.

Word Versions 4.0 and 3.x

1. If you are creating a table of contents or an index using Word

   codes, change all occurrences of .c. and .i. to any other
   unique character, such as @@@ or ###.

2. Save the document in Rich Text Format (RTF).

3. Change all occurrences of \v to \info\comment.

4. Close this document and save changes when prompted.

5. When you reopen the document and Word interprets the RTF, the hidden

   text is removed.

6. Globally change all instances of @@@ and ### back to .c. and .i.,

   respectively.

Word 2.x for Windows

1. On the the Edit menu, click Replace.

2. Place the cursor in the Find What Box.

3. Click Character.

4. Click to clear the Hidden check box.

5. Leave the Replace With box blank and click Replace All.

MORE INFORMATION

The RTF designation for hidden text is \v. Each group of characters that is formatted as hidden is preceded with a \v.

The RTF designation for a comment is \info\comment, and when RTF is interpreted, the text following the comment is not written into the document.

The special codes for tables of contents and indexes, .c. and .i. respectively, are handled differently in the RTF format of Word 4.0 than they are in Word 3.02. To support table of contents and index entries in programs that do not use the .c. format, Word 4.0 formats the complete entry as a hidden string with special RTF formatting. If you replace the \v before replacing the .c. or .i., the parts of the entry not hidden are deleted. In Word 3.02, this is not a consideration because the .c. or .i. codes are formatted in RTF in the same manner as other hidden characters.

For more information on RTF, see the application note titled "Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification." To obtain this application note, the following

file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

 ~ Gc1065.exe

For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE     : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbinterop word8 macword98 winword macword word7 word95 
Version           : MACINTOSH:4.0,5.x,6.x,98;WINDOWS:2.x,6.x,7.x,97
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: November 10, 1998