Hiding Smart Tags

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 12, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2002 and 2003


If you routinely work with documents sent to you by other people, you may want to hide the display of Smart Tags—the wavy purple underlines that appear in the document. To turn them off, so they are not visible, you can follow these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the View tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box.

  4. Clear the Smart Tags check box.
  5. Click OK.

These steps only hide the wavy purple underlines; it doesn't stop SmartTags from being saved with the document. You need to follow the steps outlined in the previous tip to stop them from being saved with the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7833) applies to Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Unwanted Graph Paper Effect

When you open a document or start to use Word, do you see a background that looks like graph paper? It could be because ...

Discover More

Extracting Targeted Records from a List

If you have a bunch of data in an Excel worksheet, you may need to work with just a subset of that data. One way to do ...

Discover More

Changing Smart Quotes to Primes

Smart quotes can be helpful in giving your document a more finished look, but you may not want them after any of the ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Automatic Sound Clips

Want to add some sound to your documents? It's easy. What isn't so easy is configuring a sound clip to play whenever a ...

Discover More

Can't Place Merge Field in Header Of a Catalog Merge Document

Word can perform several different types of mail merge operations, and the type you choose can affect how you are able to ...

Discover More

Pop-up Windows in Word

Want to add a small pop-up window over a word in your document? There is no way to do this directly in Word, but you can ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 + 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.