: Question re asterisks in MS Word using Styles I am writing an ebook with MS Word 2007, using Styles, and want to separate sections with 3 asterisks, but every time I type the 3 asterisks

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In Word2010 (not sure about Word2007), you can turn this off easily. When the border line (that's what it's called) gets added automatically, a little box appears at the left corner of the border line. Click the down arrow, and there is an option to turn off the automatic border lines.
If you choose "Control AutoFormat Options..." then you get sent to a pop-up dialog (titled "Autocorrect") that has a checkbox for border lines. It is in the section titled, "Apply as you type" in the "AutoFormat as you type" tab. Undoubtedly Word2007 has something similar.

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You are triggering a built-in "feature" of Word. You may be able to avoid this by wrapping the active text (***) in some other characters that will hide the characters from the software but be invisible on screen. I would experiment with (one or more) non-breaking spaces (CNTL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR) before and after. (Note that an equal number of spaces after are needed to ensure true centering.)

If that does not work and you really want your section separator to resemble three asterisks, then you could create an image that can be inserted each time instead of typing * three times.

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