How to Remove Formatting Marks From a Word Document

To hide formatting marks in Word, select Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶, or press Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows and Command+8 on Mac. If you mean text styling, use Home > Clear All Formatting; comments and footnotes are separate document content and need to be deleted separately.

First identify what you mean by formatting notes

People often call several different things “formatting notes.” The small symbols Word displays between words or at the ends of paragraphs are formatting marks, also known as nonprinting characters. They show where spaces, paragraph breaks, tabs, and other layout controls occur. They are usually hidden when a document opens and do not represent extra text that must be erased.

Text that appears in a different font, color, size, or spacing has formatting applied to it. A comment is a reviewer’s note attached to the document, while a footnote or endnote is numbered content linked to a reference mark in the text. Each requires a different action. Before deleting anything, look at the item: a visible ¶ is a display mark, colored or styled text is formatting, and a comment balloon or numbered note is document content.

Hide paragraph marks and other nonprinting characters

In Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, open the Home tab and, in the Paragraph group, select Show/Hide ¶. The button switches the display of formatting marks on and off. The Windows keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+8; press it again to hide the marks. On a Mac, use Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶ or press Command+8.

This changes how Word displays the document, not the document’s words or layout. For instance, a paragraph mark can reveal that an unwanted blank line comes from an extra paragraph rather than from a large font or page margin. A right-pointing arrow generally indicates a tab, and small dots between words can indicate spaces when marks are displayed. These symbols are useful while editing but are not normally printed as visible characters.

If the button does not seem to hide the marks, a display preference may be forcing some or all of them to remain visible:

On Windows, go to File > Options > Display. Under “Always show these formatting marks on the screen,” clear the checkboxes for the marks you no longer want to see. Clear “Show all formatting marks” if it is selected.
On Mac, open Word > Settings > View. In older releases, this may be Word > Preferences > View. Turn off the formatting-mark options you do not want displayed; labels can vary slightly by release.

Then return to the document and use Show/Hide if needed. You can leave marks on while editing and turn them off before sharing. Toggling the display is reversible and does not require saving a separate clean copy just to remove visible symbols.

Clear formatting from selected text

If the problem is bold, colored, unusually sized, or otherwise styled text, select the affected words and choose Home > Font > Clear All Formatting. In many Word layouts, the command is shown as an A with an eraser. This removes applied formatting from the selection and returns it to the document’s default text appearance. The exact visual result depends on the document’s theme and styles.

To clear formatting throughout the main body, click in the document and press Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Mac, then use Clear All Formatting. Check the selection before applying the command: it can remove intentional emphasis, headings, colored labels, and other useful visual distinctions. In long or complex documents, it is often safer to select a section at a time and inspect the result.

“Clear All Formatting” is not the same as deleting text. It also is not a reliable way to repair every layout issue. A paragraph may still look different because of its style, indentation, spacing, or page settings. For a basic reset, select the text and choose Normal in Home > Styles. That applies the Normal style, which may change paragraph spacing and other characteristics as well as appearance. Use it carefully in documents that rely on heading styles or a designed template.

Remove paragraph formatting and unwanted spacing

Sometimes only the paragraph layout is wrong: there may be extra space before a paragraph, a hanging indent, or an unexpected alignment. Select the affected paragraphs and use the controls in Home > Paragraph to adjust alignment, indentation, and line or paragraph spacing. For more detailed settings, open the Paragraph dialog from the small dialog launcher in the Paragraph group. The available controls let you set values rather than trying to fix the appearance with repeated spaces or blank paragraphs.

On Windows, Ctrl+Q removes direct paragraph formatting from selected paragraphs and restores the formatting defined by their paragraph style. It does not delete the text. This is different from Ctrl+Space, which clears direct character formatting from selected text. These shortcuts are useful when the problem is isolated, but check the result: the paragraph’s style can still supply spacing, indentation, and other properties. Mac users can use the ribbon and Paragraph dialog; Windows shortcuts should not be assumed to work the same way on Mac.

A common example is a heading that appears too far from the paragraph below it. The cause could be paragraph spacing in the heading style, not an extra empty paragraph. Turn on Show/Hide to inspect the paragraph marks, then adjust the spacing or style if there is no extra paragraph to remove. This avoids deleting text or making the document’s structure less consistent.

Delete comments, footnotes, and endnotes

Comments are not formatting marks. To remove one in Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, select the comment and use Review > Delete. To remove comments throughout the document, open the Delete menu in the Review tab and choose Delete All Comments in Document. On Mac, use the Review tab’s comment deletion controls; the exact layout can vary by version. Deleting comments is a content change, so save a copy first if you may need the review history.

Footnotes and endnotes are also actual content. To delete one, remove its numbered or superscript reference mark from the document text, rather than merely erasing the note text at the bottom of the page or end of the document. Word maintains the link between the reference and the note; deleting the reference mark removes the corresponding note and updates numbering. If the note contains information worth keeping, copy that text elsewhere before removing its reference.

Tracked changes are different again. Accepting or rejecting changes alters the document’s text or formatting, whereas hiding markup only changes what is displayed. If a document shows revision balloons, inspect Review > Tracking and the display options before choosing to accept or reject anything. Do not delete notes or accept changes just because they appear alongside formatting symbols.

Keep the document’s structure while cleaning it up

Clearing visual formatting can affect more than appearance. Word’s built-in heading styles help create a Navigation pane outline and can be used to generate a table of contents. If you clear formatting from every heading or apply Normal to the whole document, those headings may stop functioning as headings even though they still look like larger text in some cases. If navigation or a table of contents matters, preserve or reapply the appropriate Heading styles.

For text copied from a website, email, or another document, a cleaner approach may be to choose a paste option before the material enters the document. Word’s Paste Options can include Keep Text Only, which brings in text without much of its source formatting. The option’s name and availability can depend on the source and Word version. It is useful for avoiding unwanted fonts and colors, but it may also discard useful structure such as headings, lists, or emphasis, so review the pasted result.

When cleaning a shared or formal document, work on a copy and compare the result. Pay attention to headings, numbered lists, hyperlinks, tables, headers and footers, and page breaks. Formatting symbols can help diagnose those features; turning them off does not fix them, and clearing all formatting may remove intentional design.

Common problems and quick checks

The ¶ symbols keep coming back: Check Word’s Display or View settings for options that force formatting marks to show, then toggle Show/Hide again.
One blank line remains: Show paragraph marks. If there are two paragraph marks where one is needed, remove the extra one; if not, inspect paragraph spacing.
Text still looks different after clearing formatting: Check the applied style, paragraph settings, and document theme. Clear All Formatting may not remove formatting inherited from a style.
The document looks unchanged after hiding marks: The visible difference may be actual text styling, comments, tracked changes, or note content—not nonprinting marks.
Some marks remain while others disappear: Individual mark settings may be enabled. Review the Display or View options and turn off the specific marks.

Also remember that Word’s nonprinting marks normally do not appear on a printed page. If a symbol is actually printing, it may be a typed character or part of an image, rather than Word’s display-only formatting mark. Preview the document using File > Print on Windows, or the corresponding print preview on Mac, before making destructive edits to solve a display-only concern.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I remove the paragraph symbols in Word?
On Windows, press Ctrl+Shift+8 or select Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶. On Mac, press Command+8 or use the Show/Hide button on the Home tab. If the marks remain visible, turn off the forced-display options in Word’s Display or View settings.

Do formatting marks print in Word?
Word’s nonprinting marks, such as paragraph symbols and space dots shown by Show/Hide, are normally display aids and do not print as those symbols. Use Print Preview if you are unsure whether something is a display mark or an actual character in the document.

How do I remove formatting but keep the words?
Select the text and choose Home > Font > Clear All Formatting. The words remain, but their appearance can change. If you want to reset paragraph layout too, adjust its paragraph settings or apply the appropriate style, then check headings and lists.

Why does Clear All Formatting not fix the spacing?
Spacing can come from paragraph settings, a style, or empty paragraphs rather than direct text formatting. Turn on Show/Hide to look for extra paragraph marks, and use the Paragraph controls or modify the relevant style when spacing is the cause.

How can I remove a footnote without leaving its number?
Delete the footnote’s reference mark in the main document text. Word removes the linked note and updates numbering. Deleting only the note text may leave the reference in place, so use the marker in the body of the document.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

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

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