Where Is the Remove Formatting Button in Microsoft Word?

In Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, find the remove-formatting button on the Home tab, in the Font group: select the text, then click Clear All Formatting, shown as an A with an eraser. In Word for Mac and Word for the web, look for the same command on the Home tab; the ribbon layout can vary slightly by version and window size.

Find Clear All Formatting on the Home tab

The button sits among the controls for font, size, bold, italic, text color, and highlighting. In the Windows desktop app, open Home and look in the Font group for the icon that resembles a capital A with a small eraser. Hover over an icon if you are unsure: Word displays a tooltip naming the command. Clicking Clear All Formatting applies the command to the current selection.

If the Word window is narrow, the ribbon may compress groups or hide some controls behind a menu. Maximize the window, expand the Font group if a small launcher or overflow menu is shown, or use the command search box at the top of Word and search for Clear All Formatting. The search result can help locate a ribbon command even when its icon is not immediately visible.

Make a selection before clicking if you want to change existing text. If no text is selected, Word may apply the cleared formatting to newly typed text at the insertion point, rather than changing earlier words. To check what the command will affect, select a short sample first and inspect the result.

Remove formatting from selected text

To clean up one word, sentence, or paragraph, select only that material and click Home > Clear All Formatting. Word leaves the text itself in place but removes formatting from the selection. For example, a copied sentence that is blue, 18-point, bold, and highlighted can be reset so it no longer has those conspicuous text treatments. The result takes its appearance from the surrounding document formatting or the applicable default style.

Drag across the words, or click in a paragraph if you intend to work on that paragraph.
Open the Home tab.
In the Font group, select Clear All Formatting.
Review the surrounding paragraphs and restore any formatting you meant to keep, such as a heading style.

For a whole document, click in the document body and press Ctrl+A on Windows, then choose Clear All Formatting. In documents with tables, headers, footers, or text boxes, a selection may not cover every separate content area. Check those areas individually rather than assuming one selection has reset every part of the file.

What the command changes—and what it does not

Clear All Formatting is useful for visible text treatments such as a font choice, font size, bold or italic, font color, highlighting, superscript, and similar formatting. Its purpose is to remove formatting from the selected material, not to delete the words. It is particularly helpful when content has been pasted from a website, email, or another document and looks inconsistent with the rest of the page.

It is not a general document-cleanup or delete command. It does not remove the text, and it does not by itself delete comments, tracked changes, pictures, or document sections. Page margins, page orientation, and other layout settings are managed elsewhere. Bullets, numbering, tables, and paragraph layout have their own controls; inspect them after clearing formatting, especially when the selection includes a list or a complex layout.

Styles are another reason the result may not look identical to plain text. Word uses paragraph and character styles to provide consistent formatting across a document. Clearing a selection can make it inherit the formatting of its paragraph or return it toward the document’s default appearance, but it does not necessarily remove every structural feature associated with a paragraph. If the text is a heading, for example, applying a heading style again is often better than manually rebuilding its font and spacing.

Clear character formatting with a keyboard shortcut

On Word for Windows, Ctrl+Spacebar clears direct character formatting from selected text. This is a quick alternative when you want to remove font-level changes such as bold, a font color, or a manually selected typeface. It is narrower than a full document reset and does not serve as a substitute for paragraph or page-layout controls.

For paragraph formatting on Windows, Ctrl+Q removes direct paragraph formatting from the selected paragraph or paragraphs, such as manual alignment or indentation changes, and returns them toward their style’s settings. Select the relevant paragraphs or place the insertion point in one paragraph before using it. Because these shortcuts do different jobs, try the ribbon command if you are not sure whether the problem is character-level or paragraph-level.

Keyboard shortcuts can be reassigned or affected by other software and keyboard layouts. If a shortcut does something unexpected, use the named button on the Home tab instead. On a Mac, shortcut assignments differ from Windows and can conflict with macOS shortcuts; using the visible Home > Clear All Formatting command is the simplest way to avoid guessing.

Word for Mac and Word for the web

In Word for Mac, select the text and open the Home tab. Look in the Font controls for Clear All Formatting, represented by an A-and-eraser icon. The command has the same basic purpose as in the Windows app, though the position and grouping of ribbon controls can differ with the Mac version, ribbon settings, and window width. If you cannot see it, expand the ribbon or use Word’s command search.

In Word for the web, select the text and check the Home tab for the clear-formatting command in the font controls. The web ribbon may show fewer controls at once than the desktop app, so a menu or overflow control may be needed. Word for the web can also differ in which advanced formatting and document features it exposes. If the control is unavailable or a complex document does not respond as expected, open the file in the desktop app and make the change there.

Do not confuse the same-looking ribbon with identical feature coverage. The core action—remove the selected text’s formatting—is similar, but desktop and web versions can organize commands differently. Confirm that the document has saved after making edits in the browser, particularly if you switch between the web and desktop versions.

Why the formatting may not disappear

If the text still looks unusual after you click the button, first check whether the selection included all the affected characters. A single differently formatted word at the edge of a selection can make the cleanup appear incomplete. Select that word and apply the command again. Also check whether the difference comes from paragraph spacing, indentation, a list, or a style rather than from font formatting.

The wrong area is selected: Select the full phrase or paragraph that needs resetting, not just the insertion point.
A style is supplying the appearance: Inspect the Styles gallery on the Home tab and apply the intended style, such as Normal or a heading style.
The issue is paragraph-level: Check alignment, indentation, line spacing, and paragraph spacing in the Paragraph controls.
The text is in a separate object: Click inside its text box, table cell, header, or footer and select the content there.
The source content is still being pasted with formatting: Choose a paste option that keeps text only, or clean the pasted text after inserting it.

A useful diagnostic is to compare the affected paragraph with a nearby paragraph that looks correct. If the letters differ but the paragraph edges line up, character formatting is a likely cause. If the whole paragraph starts farther in, has different spacing, or uses bullets, examine paragraph settings and styles instead of repeatedly clicking the eraser icon.

Clear formatting or paste as plain text?

Clear All Formatting is best when the text is already in the document and you want to remove its formatting without retyping it. Paste as plain text is often more convenient when bringing in new material, because it can avoid importing the source’s fonts, colors, and other text appearance in the first place. Word’s paste menu offers options that vary by platform and context; look for Keep Text Only when it is available.

These approaches are not identical. Pasting as text only discards source formatting at the moment of insertion, while Clear All Formatting acts on text after it is in the document. Neither should be treated as a way to clean up every object or document setting. If you need to preserve a web link, list structure, or other useful feature, review the paste result before choosing the most stripped-down option.

For a document that needs consistent headings and body text, applying styles is usually more reliable than manually setting each font and size. Use Clear All Formatting to remove unwanted local styling, then apply the appropriate paragraph style from Home > Styles. This produces a more consistent document and makes later changes easier: updating a style can update matching paragraphs together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Clear All Formatting in Word?
On Windows, open Home and look in the Font group for the A-and-eraser icon named Clear All Formatting. On Mac and the web, look for the same command on the Home tab; the ribbon layout may differ.

How do I remove formatting without deleting text?
Select the text and click Home > Clear All Formatting. The command changes the selected text’s formatting but leaves the words in the document.

What is the shortcut to remove formatting in Word?
In Word for Windows, Ctrl+Spacebar clears direct character formatting from selected text. Ctrl+Q resets direct paragraph formatting. Use the ribbon command if you need a broader or more obvious option.

Why does Clear All Formatting not remove my bullet or spacing?
Bullets, indentation, and spacing can be controlled by paragraph settings or styles rather than by the font formatting you are trying to clear. Check the Paragraph controls, list settings, and the paragraph’s style.

Does Clear All Formatting remove hyperlinks?
Do not use the command as a guaranteed way to remove a link. It is intended to clear formatting, while a hyperlink is a separate link feature. To remove a link, use Word’s link controls or right-click the linked text and choose Remove Hyperlink, then check the text appearance separately.

Choose the right cleanup method

For an isolated phrase with unwanted font styling, select it and use Clear All Formatting. For a paragraph whose alignment or indentation is wrong, inspect paragraph formatting or use the Windows Ctrl+Q shortcut when appropriate. For text you have not pasted yet, choose Keep Text Only if you want to avoid bringing in much of the source appearance. When you want a polished, consistent document, finish by applying the right styles and reviewing lists, links, and layout separately.

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

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