Created attachment 33442 [details] sample doc file to test After reading the file and turning it into a String the hidden characters are not removed. This happens in XWPF as well. For reading the file I'm using a very simple method. File file = new File("file.doc"); FileInputStream fis; fis = new FileInputStream(file); HWPFDocument doc = new HWPFDocument(fis); WordExtractor ex = new WordExtractor(doc); String toReturn = ex.getText(); Same thing happens when using XWPF, very simple code. XWPFDocument doc = new XWPFDocument(fis); XWPFWordExtractor ex = new XWPFWordExtractor(doc); String toReturn = ex.getText(); I'm attaching a file you can use as sample. You can show/hide the hidden characters with ctrl+shift+8 Thanks.