Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 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: Quickly Displaying the Font Dialog Box.

Quickly Displaying the Font Dialog Box

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 9, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

If you want to quickly format some characters in your document, try this trick:

Select the characters you want to format.
Right-click on the selected characters. A Context menu appears.
Select Font from the Context menu. Word displays the Font tab of the Font dialog box appears. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Font tab of the Font dialog box.

Format your characters.
Click on OK.

If you are a keyboard-centric person, then you can get to the same dialog box even faster. All you need to do is select the characters and press Ctrl+D.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10556) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Quickly Displaying the Font Dialog Box.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Moving Quickly Between Directories

Want an easy way to move between directories using the Open dialog box? With just a little bit of up-front typing, you ...

Discover More

Saving All Open Workbooks

Wouldn't it be nice to have a single command that would save each of you open workbooks, all at once? It's easy to do ...

Discover More

Images Pile Up when Filtering

If you have a worksheet that has numerous pictures in a column, you may get an unwanted surprise when you try to filter ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Letters Turn Into Squares

Imagine that you are typing away, and all of a sudden your beautiful prose turns into a series of small rectangles that ...

Discover More

Copying Character Formatting

If you are applying character formatting directly to text rather than using a character style, you can copy it from one ...

Discover More

Using Very Large Font Sizes

You can format your text to use some very, very large font sizes. The results you see from formatting with large fonts ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 9 + 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

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.