How to Remove Formatting in Word for Office 365

Microsoft Word documents can require a large number of different formatting options, depending on what the document is being created for. For documents that have been around for a while and been edited by a number of different users, this can result in a situation where so many formatting changes have been applied that they are difficult to define.

You may be able to remove some of those formatting options by going through and individually adjusting the options that you can find, but there may be others that are difficult to identify or locate. Fortunately there is an option to clear all formatting from a selection in Microsoft Word so that you can start over with default text settings.

How to Clear Formatting in Microsoft Word

The steps in this article were performed in the Word for Office 365 version of the program. However, these steps are very similar in earlier versions of Word as well.

Step 1: Open the document in Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Select the text from which you want to remove the formatting. You can also press Ctrl + A to select everything in the document.

Step 3: Click the Home tab at the top of the window.

Step 4: Click the Clear All Formatting button in the Font section of the ribbon.

Do you have a picture in your document that is facing the wrong way, or is upside down? Find out how to flip a picture in Microsoft Word using a picture rotation tool found within the application.