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+?

Compose a new email.

Click in the body of the email.

Type a few spaces and "X".

Now do CTRL+SHIFT+8

{Press and hold Ctrl and Shift, then the 8/* key on your main key. Not on the Num Pad}

Do the formatting marks toggle on and off?

Thanks for your help, Hornblower, but this is tearing me up. Something is different about my Outlook 2019. Here's what your first link says I should see:

and here's what mine is:

As you can see, it only has few of the items, and it doesn't have "Display" as it's supposed to according to everything I've seen, including at your first link and by typing "Turn formatting marks on or off in Outlook" in the Help tab > Help box in the upper right in my Outlook 2019. Here's that:

.

I don't know what to do. I've considered just reinstalling my Outlook 2016 since it did everything I want without harassing me like this.

Thanks for your reply Hornblower. I'll follow it and reply when I get home later to that computer. I want to assure you that I have followed every step that I've been given and all that I founf on my own before coming to Microsoft Answers to ask for help.

I just need to say that I'm a very successful lifelong business owner who has been doing my business' computing setup and accounting my whole life and I'm now retired and 66..

I owned & ran the nation's leading manufacturer of spun aluminum wheels for racing go-karts in southern California for 22 years starting in '85, then a real estate franchise that I earned my California real estate broker's license to run. I set up a smsll computer network there myself with a server.

In college at Purdue Univ. in Lafayette. Indiana, in the late '70s, I took classes on Basic, Fortran and Cobol programming.

I'm saying all this to assure you that I'm a hard working, successful, somewhat tech savvy guy, not some ninny.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Outlook/comments/1492891/turn_off_paragraphs_markssymbols_in_outlook/

1. if you're replying, open up your draft in a new window, or just click new mail so it pops out into its own window, then Ctrl + Shift + 8.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2242318/outlook-keeps-showing-formatting-marks

2. Did you try all the steps in the reply you got to your Q&A post?

Thanks Hornblower, but I've been through all that before while fighting this problem and they simply don't stop showing up. I hope you believe me. I just did it again, using the steps at the page you linked and once again, same result. I can turn them OFF for the email that I'm writing, but if I start creating another one, they're back.
I can't believe that I'm the only person that not only doesn't want these junk things but whom these steps don't work. Why would that site say "Note: The options you select here will persist for all new email messages you create in Outlook, any replies or forwards you compose, and any text you type in the body of appointments, meetings, events, contact cards, and tasks." if that's simply not true? After all, it's an official support.microsoft.com website. You'd for sure think that it's accurate. I trust Microsoft on basically everything.