Unwanted Graph Paper Effect

Trevor noted that two of the systems at his office just recently exhibited the same strange behavior. When they start a new session with Word, it opens up with a "graph paper" effect on the screen. He wonders why this would this happen, and how they can turn it off.

There are a couple of possible reasons why this has occurred. The most likely reason is that the drawing grid has been turned on. Follow these steps to turn it off, provided you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Make sure the Drawing toolbar is displayed.
2. Click on the Draw tool on the toolbar. Word displays the Draw menu.
3. Select the Grid option from the Draw menu. If you are using Word 97, the Snap to Grid dialog box is displayed. If you are using Word 2000 or later, the Drawing Grid dialog box is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Clear the Display Gridlines on Screen check box. (In Word 97, clear the Snap Objects to Grid check box.)
5. Click on OK.

If you are using Word 2007, there is no longer a Drawing toolbar. In this case, you turn off the drawing grid by following these steps:

1. Make sure the View tab of the ruler is displayed.
2. Clear the Gridlines check box in the Show/Hide group.

If you follow these steps and find that the drawing grid was not turned on to begin with, then the problem could be related to a background image being set on the system. You can get rid of any background image by following these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Choose Background from the Format menu. Word displays a palette of options.
2. Click No Fill.

In Word 2007 you follow these steps, instead:

1. Display the Page Layout tab of the ruler.
2. Click Page Color, in the Page Background group. Word displays a drop-down palette of options.
3. Click No Color.

If the graph paper effect is still visible, get out of Word and use Windows' tools to find the Normal.dot file. Rename it to something else (such as OldNormal.dot) and then restart Word. If the problem goes away, then you know that it is due to some setting stored in your Normal.dot file. This can help you to track down the culprit, or you could simply let Word rebuild a new Normal.dot template file for you.

Finally, it could be that you have some third-party add-on installed that is causing the effect. Check your add-ons and if you see any there, turn them off and restart Word.