Making Text Bold

You probably already know that there are a number of ways you can make text bold in Word. One common way is to press Ctrl+B when you want to "turn on" the bold character attribute, type your word (or words), and then press Ctrl+B to turn it off.

Word provides another quick way to make text bold—using asterisks. This may sound strange but is actually quite common in the online world. In plain text e-mail messages, people often use asterisks to *emphasize* words. If you type asterisks in this manner (directly next to a word or group of words, with no intervening spaces) in Word, the asterisks are automatically removed, and the word(s) are shown in bold type.

You can try this yourself by typing *this is bold* (exactly as shown here, including spacing) within Word. When you type the second asterisk, both asterisks should disappear and the words "this is bold" are shown in bold type.

If this formatting shortcut doesn't work for you, it is because of a setting in Word's AutoFormat feature. Follow these steps:

1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Proofing.
3. Click AutoCorrect Options button. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
4. Make sure the AutoFormat As You Type tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The AutoFormat As You Type tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

5. Make sure the *Bold* and _Italic_ with Real Formatting check box is selected.
6. Click OK to dismiss the AutoCorrect dialog box.
7. Click OK to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.

The shortcut should now work just fine.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8726) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Making Text Bold.