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Equally a general rule, I recommend using every bit little direct formatting in Microsoft Word equally possible. It's difficult to rail and, if you change your listen, you tin notice yourself with a ho-hum and time-consuming chore: manually removing a lot of formatting.

Direct formatting is the formatting you apply manually, such as clicking the Assuming or Italics button–it isn't part of the applied style. Sometimes information technology'due south not fifty-fifty formatting you applied–lots of us inherit documents that need revamping.

The good news is that y'all don't have to remove direct formats ane by one: At that place are ways to chop-chop remove direct formatting. There'due south besides a method that y'all might effort to apply, simply it won't piece of work as you await. In this article, I'll show you what to do and what non to waste material your fourth dimension on.

I'one thousand using Microsoft 365 (desktop), but you tin can use before versions. You can piece of work with your ain file or download the demonstration .docx and .md files. This article isn't applicable to Word Online.

SEE: Windows xi cheat sheet: Everything you need to know (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

What not to do

You would think that styles can be helpful when you desire to remove all straight formatting. Figure A shows a hideous document (on purpose). Permit'south select the entire document and use the Normal style to see what happens. To select all the content, press Ctrl + a. To use Normal, click Normal in the Styles group on the Home tab. Figure B shows the results, and they're not proficient.

Figure A

Figure B

This is definitely frustrating. Hither's the full general rule: direct formatting takes precedence over styles. But there'due south more.

If less than half of the text in a paragraph is direct formatting, Word keeps the direct formatting. Consequently, reapplying Normal doesn't alter the formatting in the 2nd or fifth paragraph, but this same rule removes the assuming from the showtime paragraph; however, it doesn't remove the red font from the fourth paragraph. Because that paragraph is more than half, you might expect Word to remove the red font as information technology did the bold font in paragraph one. Some formats, even when applied to the entire paragraph, are really graphic symbol-level formats, and a style won't override them.

There are a lot of rules in play, and they make sense when you think nigh them, but considering of these rules, this is the to the lowest degree constructive method. I include it to continue you from trying it and being frustrated when information technology doesn't work. Now permit'south look at a simple method that works some of the time and might be a skilful choice in a small Word certificate.

Method 1: Ctrl + Spacebar

Mayhap the near reliable method to clear almost all straight formatting is to use Ctrl + Spacebar. Once again, nosotros'll kickoff by pressing Ctrl + a to select the unabridged document. Adjacent, press Ctrl + Spacebar. As you can see in Figure C, this does a much improve chore–only the highlight color in the 2d paragraph remains.

Effigy C

A highlight is neither a font format nor a paragraph format. The only way to remove a highlight is to select that text and set the Highlight to No Colour.

Note: This method will not remove applied styles–it removes only directly formatting. This might affair in a Word document that has a lot of dissimilar styles practical. Information technology might exist easier to manually remove the highlights than to start over. Now, let'due south wait at a method that removes all formatting, including practical styles.

Method ii: relieve as a .txt file

The only way to get rid of everything is to relieve the file as a .txt file (plain text), close it and and then reopen it in Discussion. From the File card, choose Save As or Save A Copy (if y'all're synching with OneDrive). From the file blazon command, choose Evidently Text (.txt) and click Save. Be sure you lot requite the new .txt certificate a new name so you can pull up the original if needed.

When y'all render to the document, the formatting remains. Close the document and reopen it. The formatting, including the highlight and the styles, are gone (Figure D). Now you can brainstorm to reformat the document from scratch–that includes styles. After reformatting, be sure to relieve the file equally a .docx file; if you leave it as .txt, Word won't save the new formatting.

Effigy D

When starting a new Word dr. might be best

Direct formatting isn't bad just use information technology conservatively. If you lot apply the same straight formatting a lot, consider creating a new style that includes that format. You could too modify Normal if you're the only one you lot have to answer to.

In the end, in that location's no way to quickly remove directly formats that yous don't desire and get out others that you exercise want. If the document's big enough, sometimes information technology's best to starting time over by removing all the formats, including styles, and starting over.