How to Remove All Formatting in Microsoft Word Quickly

To remove formatting in Microsoft Word, select the text and choose Home > Clear All Formatting in the Font group. To reset paragraph-level formatting too, use Ctrl+Q on Windows, or choose a style such as Normal. Save a copy first if the document contains formatting you may want to restore: clearing formatting keeps the text, but it can change its appearance and structure.

“All formatting” can mean different things. The Clear All Formatting command removes direct text formatting such as bold, font size, and font color. Paragraph settings, applied styles, lists, tables, and page layout may need separate attention. The steps below explain how to clean selected text or a whole document while avoiding accidental changes to content.

What You’ll Need

Microsoft Word for Windows or Mac. The instructions use the Microsoft 365 desktop app; ribbon labels can differ slightly in older versions or Word for the web.
The document you want to change. If it is important, use File > Save As to create a working copy first.
Optional: a clear idea of whether you want to remove text formatting only, reset paragraph formatting, or turn the document into plain text. These are not the same operation.

Step-by-Step

Open the document and decide how much to change. To clean up only a phrase or section, drag across that text. To select a paragraph, click inside it; paragraph formatting commands can apply to the whole paragraph even when only the insertion point is selected. To select the main document on Windows, press Ctrl+A. If the cursor is inside a table, Word may select the table or its contents first; press Ctrl+A again if needed to select more of the document. Check the highlighted area before continuing.
Clear direct character formatting. Go to Home. In the Font group, select Clear All Formatting, usually shown as an A with an eraser. This removes direct character changes such as bold, italics, underline, font face, size, font color, highlighting, and superscript or subscript. The words remain, but their appearance returns to the formatting supplied by the applicable style or default text settings. On Windows, Ctrl+Spacebar is a quick way to clear direct character formatting from the selection.
Reset direct paragraph formatting if it is still needed. Click in each affected paragraph, or select the paragraphs, then press Ctrl+Q on Windows. This resets direct paragraph settings toward the paragraph style’s defaults, including settings such as alignment, indentation, and spacing. It does not remove the paragraph style itself. On Mac, use the Home tab’s paragraph controls and the Styles gallery to make the equivalent adjustment; keyboard shortcuts differ and may conflict with macOS shortcuts.
Choose a plain style when styles are causing the remaining differences. Select the relevant paragraphs, open Home > Styles, and choose Normal for ordinary body text. This replaces heading or other paragraph styles in the selection, so use it only if you are willing to remove those distinctions. Applying Normal can change spacing and appearance as well as the style name. If you want to keep headings, select and reset body text separately rather than changing the entire document at once.
Review lists, tables, and other document structures. Bullets, numbering, tables, hyperlinks, and section breaks are not simply font decorations. Clear All Formatting does not turn a table into ordinary text or necessarily remove list structure. If you want a numbered list to become regular paragraphs, select it and use Home > Numbering or Home > Bullets to turn off the relevant list format. For a table, decide whether to keep its cells before changing its structure; clearing text formatting will not delete the table.
Check the page-level layout separately. If margins, page orientation, columns, headers, footers, or page borders are what you mean by formatting, clearing the text selection will not reset them. Look under Layout for margins, orientation, and columns, and under Insert for headers and footers. Some settings apply to a section rather than the whole document, so check section breaks before changing layout options.
Inspect the result and save. Read through the cleaned section, paying attention to headings, lists, tables, links, and spacing. Use Ctrl+Z immediately if an unwanted change occurs, then repeat the process on a smaller selection or with a different command. When the result is right, save the file. If you want a completely unformatted text copy, use the plain-text method described in Tips rather than assuming Clear All Formatting removes every document feature.

Common Mistakes

Assuming one button removes every kind of formatting. Clear All Formatting is mainly for character-level appearance. A paragraph can still have a heading style, special indentation, or list formatting afterward. Reset direct paragraph formatting and change styles only when those are part of the problem.

Selecting the wrong amount of text. Ctrl+A can behave differently when the insertion point is inside a table, header, footer, or another document area. Formatting changes affect only the selected content or current area. Confirm the highlight first, and use Undo if the result indicates that the selection was broader or narrower than intended.

Changing every paragraph to Normal without checking the document. This can remove meaningful heading styles used for navigation or a table of contents. It may also make the document less accessible and harder to maintain. If you only want to remove bold or colored text, do not replace the paragraph styles.

Expecting page layout or structure to disappear. Margins, section breaks, tables, and list numbering are not all removed by the Font group command. Treat those as separate tasks, and do not delete section breaks unless you understand that they can control headers, footers, columns, and page setup.

Tips

Use the least destructive option that meets your goal. If one pasted paragraph looks different, select only that paragraph and clear its formatting. If the whole document needs consistent body text, use a copy and work through the text and paragraph steps. This makes it easier to retain intentional headings, emphasis, and document organization.

Distinguish direct formatting from styles. Direct formatting is an extra change applied on top of a style, such as manually making one word red. A style sets a reusable group of text and paragraph properties. Clearing direct formatting may leave the style’s design in place; choosing Normal changes the style and can affect a whole paragraph. This distinction explains why two sections can still look different after using the eraser button.

For a genuinely plain-text copy, paste without formatting. Create a new document, then use Home > Paste and choose Keep Text Only if that option is available. This keeps the words but discards much of the source styling and may remove tables, links, images, and other elements or change how line breaks appear. Review the result before replacing the original. You can also paste into a plain-text editor and copy the text back, but that likewise sacrifices structure.

Keep a formatted version when the source matters. Saving a separate copy is safer than relying on Undo after many edits or after closing the file. If you are cleaning text copied from a website or email, using Keep Text Only when pasting it into Word can prevent unwanted formatting from arriving in the first place.

Troubleshooting

The text still looks different after clearing formatting. Check whether the remaining difference comes from a style, paragraph settings, or a theme font. Select the affected paragraph and compare its style in Home > Styles. Apply Normal only if it should be ordinary body text. For unusual spacing or alignment, select the paragraph and use Ctrl+Q on Windows, then inspect the paragraph controls on the Home tab.

The Clear All Formatting button is missing or unavailable. Make sure the Home tab is open and text is selected, or place the cursor in the paragraph you want to adjust. In a narrow Word window, ribbon groups may be collapsed; expand the ribbon or open the Font group’s options. If you use Word for the web, the command’s location or availability may differ, so look in the Home tab’s text formatting controls.

Only part of the document changed. The selection may have included only one section, a table cell, or the current header or footer. Undo the change if necessary, click in the main document body, select the intended content, and verify the highlight before repeating the command. Headers and footers are separate areas; edit them directly if those are the parts you want to clean.

Lists or spacing remain after the reset. Lists have their own controls, so remove bullets or numbering with the corresponding buttons on the Home tab. For remaining paragraph spacing, open the Paragraph options from the Home tab and review indentation and spacing. If the setting comes from a style, changing direct paragraph formatting may not override it permanently; select an appropriate style or modify the style if you want consistent results throughout the document.

A Mac shortcut does something unexpected. Use the ribbon instead of relying on Windows shortcuts. Word for Mac uses different shortcuts in some cases, and macOS may reserve a shortcut for a system feature. The Home tab’s formatting and Styles controls provide a dependable way to make the change without guessing at a key combination.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Clear All Formatting delete the text?
No. It changes the selected text’s formatting, not its words. Still, save a copy first when preserving the original appearance matters.

How do I remove formatting from the entire Word document?
In the main document body on Windows, press Ctrl+A to select the document, then choose Home > Clear All Formatting. Reset paragraph formatting with Ctrl+Q if needed, and change styles only if you also want to remove them. Check the selection when working in a table or header.

What is the difference between Ctrl+Space and Ctrl+Q?
In Word for Windows, Ctrl+Space clears direct character formatting, such as bold or font color. Ctrl+Q resets direct paragraph formatting, such as indentation or alignment, toward the selected paragraph style’s defaults. Neither shortcut deletes text.

Will removing formatting delete bullets, tables, or hyperlinks?
Not necessarily. Bullets and numbering are list structures, tables have cells, and hyperlinks can remain links after text formatting is cleared. Use the relevant list, table, or link controls when you want to change those features. Review the document because a link’s appearance can depend on its style.

Can I remove formatting but keep headings?
Yes. Select only the body text you want to clean, clear its direct formatting, and reset its paragraphs as needed. Leave heading paragraphs out of the selection, or keep their heading styles. Applying Normal to the whole document would remove those style distinctions.

How do I make text completely plain?
Paste it into a new document with Keep Text Only, then review it. This removes more source styling than the Clear All Formatting button, but may also discard useful elements such as links, tables, images, and layout. Keep the original if any of those might be needed.

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Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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