The corner marks you see in Word can be text boundaries, crop marks, or other nonprinting layout guides. If they appear around the page corners, the Show crop marks option is the most likely cause.
Turn off crop marks in Word for Windows
Open File > Options and select Advanced. Scroll to the section for showing document content. Clear Show crop marks, then choose OK.
The corner marks should disappear from the editing view. This setting changes Word’s display; it does not delete document text or alter margins.
If the marks are not crop marks
If you see dotted outlines around text areas instead, Word may be showing Text boundaries. That is a separate Advanced display option. Paragraph marks, tabs, and other symbols come from the Show/Hide ΒΆ control on the Home tab.
Will crop marks print?
Word’s on-screen crop marks are normally editing aids rather than printer marks added to the finished page. If lines actually appear in Print Preview or on paper, inspect borders, shapes, page background, printer settings, or PDF/export options instead of assuming the Word display setting is responsible.
In shared documents, changing this option typically affects your Word application rather than modifying the document for every recipient. If another person sees crop marks on their computer, they may need to change the same Word display preference locally.
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office, and many other popular applications and devices.