How to Remove Formatting in Word

Strip bold, colors, fonts, and stray styling to get clean plain text in Word.

1. Select the text you want to clean up

   Drag over a section, or press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select the whole document.

2. Click "Clear All Formatting"

   On the Home tab, it's the eraser-with-an-A icon in the Font group. This resets the selection to the default style, removing bold, color, odd fonts, and sizes.

3. Or use the keyboard shortcuts

   Ctrl+Spacebar clears character formatting; Ctrl+Q clears paragraph formatting (Cmd versions on Mac). Handy when you want to reset just part of a line.

4. Paste as plain text next time

   To avoid dragging in formatting from a web page, paste with Ctrl+Shift+V, or use Paste Options > "Keep Text Only." Saves you cleaning up afterward.