Copying text produces gray squares

[metgrl]

Sometimes when I copy and paste text, gray spaces/rectangles show up before or after some letters. I have tried Pasting Special Options and that doesn't work. I think these "squares" are spaces or tabs from where I copied them but they paste as gray. They can be individually deleted, but that is sooo painstaking that I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Title Edited. A descriptive title for posts helps others who are searching for solutions and increases your chances of a reply. (TheGurkha, Moderator)

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You mean non breaking spaces (the gray disappears if you switch the field shading off)? I face this problem regularly too. Never found any way to avoid that. When they really bother me, I use the Find & Replace feature to remove them.

[RoryOF]

These gray non-breaking spaces do not print as gray; it is useful to know when a space is non-breaking, hence the colour onscreen. As Hagar says, you can turn it off.

[metgrl]

Thanks so much, that really helps.

[TheGurkha]

As a quick proof of concept, go tot print Preview, you'll see they're not there.

If this has answered your question please go to your first post and use the Edit button, and add [Solved] to the start of the title. You can use the green tick icon at the same time if you like.

[jandmarshall]

I am having trouble understanding the resolutions suggested. I copied a 100 word text. When I pasted it, every word had a gray space. Open office treated as a one long word.

[Zizi64]

Always create a new topic for your new problem in this forum - even it is similar to an another (existing) one....

I am having trouble understanding the resolutions suggested. I copied a 100 word text. When I pasted it, every word had a gray space. Open office treated as a one long word.

Please upload your ODF type sample file here.

I copied a 100 word text.

Where you copied it from?

[robleyd]

Use the Find & Replace feature to remove them. You will need to copy one of the non-breaking spaces from your document to use in the Find.

[John_Ha]

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual. May I suggest you bookmark the pages.

Press F1 to access the Help screen and search for your problem

The chapter headings in the manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.