What are these controls on text boxes.. is there a way to hide them?

[DoYouLikeHam]

What are these controls that show up near text objects (bottom right side) - even when not editing text.  Is there a way to hide them?

[Mohammad.Harb · Accepted solution]

This is an indicator of text overflow, 

you can extend the text frame to show the hidden text

[DoYouLikeHam]

Ah!  Ok, thx much... no wonder I was confused.. I only had a bunch of line returns.. no actual characters outside the box.

[Scott Falkner · Accepted solution]

If you click on the + you will switch to the type tool. The text frame you create will contain the overflow text.