How to delete end-of-row marker in Word tables?
Thread poster: Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:54
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
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May 21, 2020

Dear colleagues,

How can I remove the end-of-row symbols in a Word table? It looks like a circle with four spikes. Here's an example:

Bildschirmfoto 2020-05-21 um 16.05.35

I'm using Win10 and Word 2010.

Many thanks in advance,
kind regards,
Erik


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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@Erik May 21, 2020

Erik Freitag wrote:
How can I remove the end-of-row symbols in a Word table?


You can't. You can hide it by not showing non-printing characters, but you can't remove it.

The same applies to the line break at the end of a document -- you can't remove it, it's always there. If I copy a line of text (without a closing line break) from a text editor into a Word file, it gets the line break. And if I then Ctrl+A and paste it back into the text editor, there is now an added line break.

Wait... Word 2010 does not show a thin grey line for invisible borders, like Word 2003 does. So, I think what you have there, are two rows, and the border between the two rows is invisible. This means that you must select both rows and "merge" them.

Word 2016

word 2016 without grid

Word 2003

word 2003 again

In the next post, Thomas mentions a dotted line, but I don't get a dotted line in either version of Word.


[Edited at 2020-05-21 15:57 GMT]


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:54
Danish to English
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Why two? May 21, 2020

What I don't get is how you can have two end-of-cell markers in one cell. Even if a border line were set to no line, there would still be a dotted line in Word to indicate the cell limit.

 
Stepan Konev
Stepan Konev  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 15:54
English to Russian
This is the end-of-cell marker May 21, 2020

It looks the same as the end-of-row marker outside the table. You can remove both by eliminating the table structure. Convert table to text for example.

 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:54
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
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TOPIC STARTER
Thanks! May 21, 2020

Thanks, Samuel! Merging the rows worked. I used the "merge cells" function, so I had to do this individually for all cells, but the table wasn't too big!

So, just for the next time - is there a way to do this for a complete table at once? I guess there isn't, because such a function would not be able to distinguish between legitimate and unwanted end-of-row markers?

Thomas, thank you as well! I don't get dotted lines either.


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:54
Danish to English
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Two separate cells May 21, 2020

The answer must be that you have two cells with an invisible border between them.

Click on View gridlines to see the border.

grid


 
Stepan Konev
Stepan Konev  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 15:54
English to Russian
Table grid hidden May 21, 2020

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
What I don't get is how you can have two end-of-cell markers in one cell. Even if a border line were set to no line, there would still be a dotted line in Word to indicate the cell limit.

You can hide the table grid.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Re: gridlines May 21, 2020

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Click on "View gridlines" to see the border.


I confirm that this makes the dotted line appear in Word 365. In this version of Word, go Table Design > Borders > Borders > View Gridlines.

word 365 with grid


 


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How to delete end-of-row marker in Word tables?






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