strange symbols in scanned document

Jolinda Pizzirani 20 Reputation points
2026-09-19T18:07:05.2233333+00:00

A scanned document resulted in some strange symbols which are highlighted in red when the cursor hovers over them. How do I get rid of them?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
Answer accepted by question author
Suzanne S Barnhill 279.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-09-21T01:00:10.8466667+00:00

The handwritten notes may have been inserted as a text box Behind Text. If you can select the edge of it, you can delete it. Or you may be able to select it using the Selection Pane, which you can open from the Arrange group on the Shape Format tab.

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It's hard to tell much about your document from a screen shot. You can upload a sample of the document to OneDrive or another file-sharing site, make it public, and post the link here, and then someone can take a look and see what's going on.

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  1. Charles Kenyon 171.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-09-19T18:49:12.4266667+00:00

    Scanned text and otherwise converted text is often filled with anomalies.

    Your text has gone through an optical character recognition process.

    See:

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