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
    2014-06-22T03:48:14+00:00

    Thanks to all who submitted this problem before I encountered it.

    Running Windows 8.1 on a Toshiba, going into the "Options" tab and just closing that window brought the tabs indicator back. Again, thanks, I thought I was loosing my mind when that little window was blank. 'Bout drove me crazy until I thought of checking out here.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-03T22:47:02+00:00

    That doesn't work on my Windows 7. I typed in an article number that I know was installed because I saw it on the list and the Search turned up "No items match your search."

    It does work, but you have to put KB at the beginning. I searched by the first 4 numbers, 2880, and that search produced no results, but KB2880 brought all of the updates beginning with those numbers.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-07-04T00:08:30+00:00

    It does work, but you have to put KB at the beginning. I searched by the first 4 numbers, 2880, and that search produced no results, but KB2880 brought all of the updates beginning with those numbers.

    Which version of Windows is this? I haven't been able to get it to work for Windows 7. It just wants to search Control Panel and it comes up with nothing...

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