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
    2014-05-22T06:54:13+00:00

    This problem is not resolved yet. If I open another Word document first (or a new blank one) and then open these files in which the problem is appearing, then the TAB INDICATORS are fine. But if I close all the documents and open the problem document, the problem is back... NO TAB INDICATORS. Then if I open other documents unrelated to this one, the problem also occurs. Very strange. I have replaced the template for the problem document AND also pasted it into a new blank document, but to no effect. 

    I thought perhaps the NORMAL template was corrupted, but if that were the case, then launching a new Word doc would have the problem, wouldn't it? 

    Any other thoughts?

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-05-14T19:04:08+00:00

    Since this occurs in a single document, corruption is likely.

    To rule out other factors, is there something specific about the document that exhibits the problem? Formatting that you don't normally make use of?

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  3. 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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