How do I get rid of formatting marks?

Scenario: Ah! Somehow the formatting got all weird with paragraph symbols and stuff in Outlook, Word, or another Office program and you don't know how to make them go away. 

This is actually a pretty common and easy to fix issue. It is usually caused either by accidentally hitting a keyboard shortcut or the button for Show/Hide Formatting Marks in an Office program.

Solution 

Icon Solution

In Word

Click the Show/Hide Formatting Marks icon in the Home tab to toggle this feature on and off (circled in red below):

In Outlook

Navigate to the Format Text tab, then click the Show/Hide Formatting Marks icon (circled in red below):

Keyboard Shortcut Solution

hile editing an email or document, simply press the following keys on your keyboard to toggle this feature on and off:

Ctrl+Shift+* 

Note: The asterisk is also typically the numeric 8 key.