Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Absolutely Getting Rid of Formatting.
If you are working with a document that is highly formatted, and you are looking for a quick and easy way to get rid of any and all formatting for a selection of text, here is a quick way to do it:
Since the Notepad accessory can only work with unformatted text, all formatting for your text selection is removed. You can then either save your selection as a text file, or copy it back to the Clipboard and paste it back into Word.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7065) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Absolutely Getting Rid of Formatting.
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2018-03-29 07:37:17
Ged Dixon
Dear Word Tips
Thanks for all your work - it is helpful and appreciated.
I wonder if anyone can help with an issue I face quite a lot as a student doing research online
I copy quite a lot of web page articles into Word, so I can annotate and cite more easily. However, I cannot seem to change the margins so that the copied text automatically fills the Word page - I can only do it manually.
Here's an example:
In spite of the immense reputation which Hugh of St. Victor
gained during his lifetime and has ever since enjoyed, the only
biographical facts about him which it seems possible to place
beyond all dispute are the day and year of his death.
In spite of the immense reputation which Hugh of St. Victor gained during his lifetime and has ever since enjoyed, the only
biographical facts about him which it seems possible to place beyond all dispute are the day and year of his death.
As you can imagine it means documents are twice the length they need to be and therefore harder to navigate., so any help would be great.
Kind regards
2016-06-17 17:56:41
Susan Dunlevy
Or use PureText, a wonderful little free program that achieves the same result in a lot less time and with a lot less effort. I've been using PureText for about 20 years, and I swear by it. It can be found at http://stevemiller.net/puretext/
2016-06-17 13:48:10
Lois E. Power
I believe it is easier to copy to clipboard, then hit paste special and paste as unformatted text. One less step.
2014-09-23 13:13:17
Dave Kinsella
This is to KPbICMAH: That was awesome! Worked a treat! Word continues to be a massive puzzle to me that I slowly put together. That was a huge piece of it for me.
I used to put it into facebook, which also did the same as putting it into notepad.
2013-08-23 11:37:36
Becky
Sounds like something I should try when re-doing leases that are formatted. It would be much easier than trying to type within the formatting.
2013-08-18 19:10:41
Ingrid Kennedy
... and you can click on Clear All Formatting in the styles list.
2013-08-17 19:49:09
Joan Thompson
I've been using Notepad for years especially when I want to copy information from a website. Word usually crashes with a large copy and paste html section, so I must "paste special" the selection into my Word document,and then format it to my liking. Since grahics were stripped from the section I copied and pasted into Notepad, I must go back to the website and individually copy the images I want into my doc. If a graphic is proprietary and won't allow it to be copied, Vista and Win7's Snipping Tool overcomes the problem. Be sure to format the graphic after it is inserted into your document so that it can be resized and moved to where you want it. Time consuming, maybe, but better than losing your document due to a crash and hoping it can be recovered.
2013-08-17 06:07:36
Theo Laan
I'm using something else. Cut the text you want to unformat (Ctrl X). Past it directly again (Ctrl V) and choose for paste as tekst. All formatting is gone!
2013-08-17 04:39:32
covenant45
Would a select or a triple click of the selection bar(Ctrl+A), -> home tab's -> clear formatting icon (font group) work?
2013-08-17 04:23:51
KPbICMAH
Sounds kinda superfluous. Why not just select all (Ctrl-A) or part of the text you want to "unformat" and press Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Shift-N to reset text and paragraph formattting?
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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