Hi Anonymous

There might be several things going on here.

First, try View > Print Layout. Does that make it look better? Word has
several different ways to view a document. It sounds like you might have
been used to using Print Layout view, but somehow Word got changed to
Normal view.

Other things that might affect the way you view your document are:
(1) Tools > Options. Click the View tab. If the "White space between
pages" box is not ticked, then, in Print Layout view, Word will not
display space for top or bottom margins.

(2) Also on the View tab is the Text Boundaries box. If this is ticked,
when you're in Print Layout view, Word displays your margins with little
dotted lines. When these are displayed (they don't print), it's clear to
you where the margins are.

You can safely experiment by ticking any or all the boxes on the View
tab, but avoid ticking the "Picture Placeholders" box. If you tick this,
then Word displays a placeholder instead of displaying pictures.

For information about the options in the Formatting marks section, and
what they signify, see

What do all those funny marks, like the dots between the words in my
document, and the square bullets in the left margin, mean?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly.  Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia