Quickly clear formatting in Word

There are many ways to clear and adjust formatting in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can use smart tags when you cut and paste, select styles from the toolbar, search and replace formats, and even pick up and copy styles you like with the Format Painter.

But if all you want to do is clear all unwanted formatting from a selection or entire Word document, there's a faster and easier way. Just select the text you want to scrub and then click the Clear Formatting button in the top right corner of the Font section on the Home tab:

Things like images, hyperlinks, and highlighting will be intact. You will lose any font variations such as bold, italics, and strikethrough. If you don't like the results, use Ctrl+Z to quickly undo.

Suzanne

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2013
  Suzanne100,  Being relatively new to Office (Word) 2010 I appreciate the way you keep your instructions simple.  Thank you