In this part of my document, for some reason, when I enter a space after a word, the space does not appear until I start to type another word. This is not happening elsewhere in the document. What is happening? How do I resume normal behaviour? The style is set to body text but it isn't behaving like the rest of the body text.

What happens when you press Ctrl+Shift+8 (Ctrl+*)?

A clue!



I pressed return a couple of times which pushed this section break away to the next line and now I have my spaces back. Thanks for this formatting tip!

See also:
Word's Reveal Formatting Methods



It really helps when you peek behind the curtain to see what is really going on.
(Reference is to the original Wizard of Oz movie.)

It isn't unusual that there is a delay in Word when typing immediately above a section break, as seen in your screen shot. To work around this issue, you can add a blank paragraph (press Enter) above the section break.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional