Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 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: Resetting Character Formatting in a Macro.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 11, 2026)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365
One of the things that most people use macros for is to make short work of formatting. It takes a while to set up macros to handle formatting, but it saves time in the long run if you have a document of any length at all.
Word provides many different commands and functions that affect character formatting. One of those commands causes the character formatting of a text selection to be set to the default for your paragraph. This is the syntax for the Reset method, which is used if you are programming in VBA:
Selection.Font.Reset
As you can see, there is not much to this command. It simply and quickly resets character formatting. This macro code is equivalent to pressing Ctrl+Space Bar to reset character formatting manually.
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12326) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Resetting Character Formatting in a Macro.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 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:
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