How to remove 'paragraph blue symbol' from default setting

Question

How to remove 'paragraph blue symbol' from default setting

Tara 0

Help,

I am using a Mac so outlook for Mac 16.102.1 on the legacy setting and I accidentally hit a bunch of keys on the keypad which somehow turned on the Blue paragraph symbol as default on every email I now write which is very annoying.

How can I remove this?

I have the 'P' symbol in the top ribbon which if I click on that it removes it not he email but I have to do this every time which is highly annoying I want to change the default setting to remove this completely.

I have been using outlook for Mac for over 10 years and never had this issue before.

Please Help

Hornblower409-4652 2,105 Reputation points

2025-10-28T19:53:43.11+00:00

Tara

As a test, if you create a new Outlook profile, does it have the same problem - You turn off the Show Pilcrow in an email, but it doesn't "stick"?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-profiles-or-identities-in-outlook-for-mac-fed2a955-74df-4a24-bef6-78a426958c4c

1 answer

Your answer

Hornblower409-4652 2,105 Reputation points

2025-10-28T19:53:43.11+00:00

Tara

As a test, if you create a new Outlook profile, does it have the same problem - You turn off the Show Pilcrow in an email, but it doesn't "stick"?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-profiles-or-identities-in-outlook-for-mac-fed2a955-74df-4a24-bef6-78a426958c4c

Answer 1

Chloe-L 4,025 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Tara,

Thank you for posting your question to the Microsoft Q&A forum. Those paragraph marks (¶) can certainly be distracting, but there is a straightforward way to disable them in Legacy Outlook for Mac.

Here are the correct steps to turn off these formatting marks:

Start a New Email: Open a new email message so the full set of editing tools is visible.
Look for the ¶ symbol in the Ribbon
Ensure the Button is Off so that the paragraph symbols disappear from the body of the new message.
Important: Close the new email without saving or sending it. This action often sets the global default for the editor and the paragraph marks should no longer appear by default when you compose new messages or replies.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

I hope this helps you get your composing view back to the way you like it! Please let me know how these suggestions work for you, or if you have any other questions.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 428K Reputation points

2025-10-25T16:57:36.8366667+00:00

Unfortunately, these instructions cannot be followed – at least not on a Mac . Even Legacy Outlook [16.102.1] refers to Settings rather than Preferences & there is no Authoring section in the Settings dialog. Neither are there any such settings in the Composing group either for HTML or Plain Text:
Chloe-L 4,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-25T18:03:07.56+00:00

Hi Bob,

Thank you for bringing that version discrepancy to my attention.

To ensure the accuracy of the guidance for the users of that specific version, I have updated the initial response with the correct, validated steps. The revised procedure is now available in the original post.

Best regards,
Tara 0 Reputation points

2025-10-25T23:42:36.34+00:00

This is manually turning it off each time I write an email which I what I mentioned in my original request for help. This don't not store that setting of turning off the Paragraph symbol completely.

There has to be a way to turn this off.

As I mentioned I have had no issues for 10 years.. now suddenly its an issue.
Chloe-L 4,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-28T19:18:19.0433333+00:00
Hi Tara,

Thank you for your reply, and I am sorry to hear that the previous steps did not resolve this issue. However, I have two more advanced solutions we can try, starting with a "hidden" setting within the font preferences.

Step 1: Uncheck the "Hidden" Font Setting

This is the most likely culprit. There is a setting within the font preferences that can force formatting marks to appear if it's been accidentally checked. We will need to check this for all three email types.

In the top menu bar, click Outlook > Settings (or Preferences on older versions).

In the Settings panel, click Fonts.

You will see three settings: "New mail," "Reply or forward," and "Plain text."

Click the Font... button for "New mail".

In the window that pops up, look for the "Effects" section.

Ensure the Hidden box is UNCHECKED. If it is checked, please uncheck it.

Click OK.

Repeat these steps for both the "Reply or forward" and "Plain text" fonts.

Once you have confirmed "Hidden" is unchecked for all three, please quit and restart Outlook, then test if the issue is resolved when composing a new email.

Step 2: Reset Outlook Preferences File (Advanced)

If Step 1 does not fix the issue, the setting is likely "stuck" in a corrupted preferences file. Our next step is to reset this file.

Note: This action will reset many of your Outlook customizations (like view settings, account order, and other preferences) back to their defaults. It will not delete your emails, folders, or accounts.

Quit Outlook completely. Make sure it is not running in the background.

Open Finder.

Click on the Go menu at the top of your screen.

With the "Go" menu open, press and hold the Option (Alt) key on your keyboard. The Library folder will appear in the menu. Click on Library.

Inside the Library folder, navigate to the Preferences folder.

Scroll down and find the file named: com.microsoft.Outlook.plist

(Note: If you only see a file named com.microsoft.Office.plist and not one for Outlook, you can perform the same step on that file. However, you would need to quit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint first, as this will reset some of their preferences as well.)

Drag this file (or files) to your Desktop. (This creates a backup just in case).

Now, restart Outlook.

Outlook (and other Office apps, if you moved the general file) will start up with fresh default settings. Please check if the paragraph mark issue is resolved.

If it is, you can safely delete the old .plist file(s) from your Desktop. You may need to reconfigure some of your personal view settings, but the problem should be gone.

Please let us know how these steps work for you, or if you have further questions.

Best regards,

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How to remove 'paragraph blue symbol' from default setting

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