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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallYou can hide an object anchor’s symbol, but you cannot delete the anchor as a separate item. To remove the need for an anchor, change a floating picture to In Line with Text. If you want to hide the picture itself, use the Selection pane instead.
What an object anchor means
In Word, an anchor is a visual indicator showing which paragraph a floating picture or object is associated with. It is not a separate object you can remove. Microsoft explains that anchors indicate a picture’s relative position on a page and cannot be removed as standalone items (Wrap text and move pictures in Word).
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Hide the anchor symbol without changing the picture
To turn off formatting marks, select Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶. This toggles hidden characters and marks, including paragraph marks and tabs. To change the persistent display preference, use the route for your computer:
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- Windows: Select File > Options > Display, then adjust the marks under Always show these formatting marks on the screen.
- Mac: Select Word > Preferences > View, then adjust Show Non-Printing Characters.
Word’s Display options also include an Object anchors setting. Clear it to stop displaying the anchor indicator. These settings hide the symbol; they do not hide or reposition the picture. See Microsoft’s instructions for showing or hiding marks in Word and its Word Display options.
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Remove the need for an anchor by making the picture inline
If you do not want the picture anchored to a paragraph, select it, open Layout Options, and choose In Line with Text. Word then treats the picture like a text character, so it does not have an object anchor.
Other wrapping choices—such as Square, Tight, Through, Top and Bottom, Behind Text, and In Front of Text—make the picture float in relation to text and remain associated with a paragraph. Switching between these floating options can change how text flows around the picture, but it does not remove its anchor. Microsoft’s picture wrapping and positioning guide explains these behaviors.
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Hide the picture or object itself
To hide the actual object rather than its anchor symbol, open the Selection pane, select the object in the list, and use its hide control. The object remains in the document; use the pane’s show or unhide control to restore it. Microsoft provides platform guidance in its article on using the Selection pane to manage document objects.
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Keep a floating picture associated with its paragraph
If the picture should remain floating but stay in place when nearby text is deleted, select it, open Layout Options > See more, and choose Lock anchor. Locking does not hide the symbol or remove the anchor; it helps preserve the picture’s association with its paragraph. These anchor and positioning options are unavailable for inline pictures, which have no anchor.
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When to use Word for the web or desktop
Word for the web can move and format pictures inserted there. However, a picture inserted in desktop Word with text wrapping or fixed positioning may not be movable in the web app. For those layout edits, open the document in desktop Word. The persistent formatting-mark setting names differ between Windows and Mac; Microsoft lists guidance for Microsoft 365 and Word 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024, including Mac editions.
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