Showing non-printing formatting marks in Microsoft Word
What do all those funny marks, like the dots between the words in my document, and the square bullets in the left margin, mean?

These do not print. They are there to help you figure out why Word is doing what it is doing with your text. I generally keep them turned on.
The display is toggled with Alt+* (Alt+Shift+8).

This is shortcut is available in Word 2000-2016.