Word TAB INDICATOR missing

Anonymous
2014-05-14T08:16:58+00:00

The TAB INDICATOR now shows only as a blank icon and no tabs show on the ruler. My tab indicator and tabs were fine until recently. Running Word 2013 on Win 8. How can I fix this, please?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2014-08-21T21:24:31+00:00

The fix for this bug has been released as KB2883058 as part of the August 2014 updates. If you have Office 365, the fix will be included in the August automatic updates; otherwise it will appear in the August Patch Tuesday downloads in Windows Update or can be obtained from the link above.

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Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2014-07-27T16:27:39+00:00

There is an issue causing tab stops and indent indicators to disappear from the ruler in Word 2013. The problem is being investigated by the Office team, and a fix is expected. Meanwhile, the following are workarounds recommended by Microsoft:

  • Start Word first, with a blank document, and then open the document you are going to read or edit.​
  • Avoid having a table as the first item in a document (at present it appears that this is the cause of the problem).

While other procedures may clear the problem temporarily, none is a permanent fix, and they do not address the underlying problem issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-14T14:31:45+00:00

    Yes, I'm aware Draft view doesn't display all the formatting.

    Now it seems the "solution" is not a matter of switching to Draft view and then back to Print view, as that doesn't cause the Tab Selector to appear. 

    The trick is to open up a new Word document, and the TAB SELECTOR looks fine. Then if I open the "problem" document while the new Word document is open, the TAB SELECTOR and tabs now display normally. But if I close both documents and then reopen the problem document, the tab selector is gone again. Seems very strange to me. Is this file corruption or something else?

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-05-14T10:19:27+00:00

    Draft view doesn't display all paragraph formatting; maybe that's the explanation, or part of it.

    If you suspect document corruption, which certainly is a possibility, try the following on a copy of the document: Delete any section breaks. Copy all content, minus the final paragraph mark, into a new, blank document.

    To show/hide paragraph marks (¶), as well as other nonprinting marks, click the ¶ button on the Home tab.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-05-14T10:07:16+00:00

    Dear Stefan,

    Thanks for your quick reply and your questions, which led me to discover that the problem seemed limited to only a specific document and did not occur in a new document. I tried to create tab stops from the Tab dialog box and it seemed to accept them, but in fact no tabs appeared. 

    However, after viewing the file in Draft view and then going back to print view, suddenly the problem was gone. The Tab selector has returned and I can now place tabs along the ruler. Totally strange. Perhaps there is some corruption in the file?

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