You can use the Show/Hide button ¶ on the Standard toolbar to display paragraph marks, spaces, tabs, and other normally invisible characters that are embedded in the text. To diagnose a paragraph formatting problem, click in the paragraph that is in question, then choose Paragraph from the Format menu to see all of the settings applied in that paragraph. If you select multiple paragraphs, then select the Paragraph command, the settings that are not the same in each selected paragraph will be blank.

Another option is the What's This? item on the Help menu:

1. Choose What's This? from the Help menu.

2. Click on the text you want to check. In Word 2000, a balloon will appear with some information about the formatting. In Word XP/2003, the information appears in the task pane on the right side of the screen.

To diagnose a font formatting problem, click on the text that is in question. The current font and font size are displayed on the Formatting toolbar, if it is displayed (see How can I display more toolbars?). You can also choose Font from the Format menu to see all of the settings applied to the characters where you clicked. Since different character formatting could conceivably be applied to adjoining characters, you may have to remove all of the font settings from a block of text that is causing problems, then redo it. If you select a block of text, then select the Font command, the settings that are not the same in each selected paragraph will be blank.