That Annoying Double Line

[fossa]

In Word 2007 I use a paragraph separator by using the single quote followed by about 11 equal signs but sometimes when I hit ENTER, it converts my 11 equal signs into a longer row of double lines. When I have the mouse cursor placed beyond these double lines and hit the DEL key, sometimes it will erase it but often it won't erase. It won't delete them by the highlighting method. I noticed also that when I try to backspace to place the 11 equal signs to a tab stop that is at the leftmost side of my margin, the program adds an unwanted row of these double line symbols above the 11 equal signs! Why are these long rows of equal signs appearing when they're not called for? Is there a parameter that needs to be disabled somewhere? Thanks.