Microsoft Word Oddity #872,982

Post date: 2021-04-15 10:50:35

What are these odd text boxes and how can I efficiently get rid of them?

I've received some files in Word that have odd formatting. Editor says the files originally came in pdf format, possibly the source of the oddity. Sometimes whole paragraphs are encased in these odd text...box...frame-type things. In many cases, as throughout this particular file, there's a bunch of extra spaces.

I found I could right-click on the blue tab and remove them one by one. That works fine for the first example which is just spaces. But not so much for the full paragraphs enclosed in one of these.

I was able to somewhat mitigate the problem by saving as a .doc file and reopening in Word, but that just converted them all to text. I then had to search and replace to remove all the odd bits of double spaces. But this isn't my favorite solution because this left me with spaces before periods, commas, super-scripted numbers, and beginnings of paragraphs. Probably other spots too, but I'll have to go through it with a fine tooth comb, and I'd rather not.

What are these? Is there a better way to remove them and clean them up?

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