Why all these dots instead of the spaces that were there & ¶ marks when I Reply to or Forward an email in my new Outlook in Office 2019 Pro+?

Anonymous
2025-05-09T01:51:07+00:00

This is crazy and surely there's an easy Settings fix. I've been using Outlook on my Windows PC since the early '90s. Just finally upgraded to Outlook in Office 2019 Pro+ from Outlook 2016. What the heck is Outlook doing by putting dots instead of all the spaces on emails as I'm Replying to them? More importantly, how do I stop it from this madness?

Here's an example:

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-09T03:06:56+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-09T03:11:32+00:00

    Hi Jeff,

    You have Outlook showing all the hidden formatting marks. Ctrl+Shift+8 to toggle them or click the pilcrow icon (similar to a backwards P) on the Format Text tab to toggle them off.

    Let me know how it goes, I'm here to help you further if needed.

    -- Diane

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-10T00:51:13+00:00

    Thanks Hornblower and Diane. Nice to hear from you again Diane. Something wrong is going on. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+8 simultaneously to toggle it (as I was told would toggle it in my other Question) does nothing and everything across the top is greyed out and unclickable, as you can see. What's going on? In case you might think it's an Administrator issue, it's not since this is my home PC and I'm the only login.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-10T01:39:46+00:00

    Click in the message body? Is itstill grayed out?

    It will be grated out if the cursor is in the to/cc or subject fields.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-10T01:52:15+00:00

    I'd forgotten that my brand new to me Windows 11 has these dumb Run As Administrator things that are only available in certain places, not in the Taskbar where my Outlook is pinned and where I always start it from. But, unfortunately even shutting off Outlook and then doing a Run As Administrator didn't add any clickable life to all those options.

    As you help me solve this ¶ thing, can you also tell me how to get rid of the dots instead of spaces and the thing it puts at the end of what it considers to be a paragraph, as shown here:

    Is there any way to Pin Outlook to Run As Administrator to the Start Menu or to the Taskbar? I can't find anyway to do so.

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