Why you might want to strip formatting from a document

When you copy text from a website, email, or another document into Word, it often brings along invisible formatting — font choices, colors, spacing, hyperlinks, and tracked changes. That formatting can make your document look messy, slow down your file, or hide information you did not intend to keep. Clearing it all at once is faster than hunting through each paragraph by hand.

Stripping formatting also matters for privacy. If you copy text from a document someone else created, that text may carry metadata — information about who edited it, when, and what changes they made. Clearing formatting does not remove all metadata, but it removes the formatting layer that often contains the most visible traces of a document's history.

Key Takeaways

  • Select all text with Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac), then use Ctrl+Spacebar or the Clear Formatting button to remove direct formatting while keeping paragraph structure.
  • Paste Special with "Unformatted Text" option removes all formatting including fonts, colors, and hyperlinks in one step.
  • Find and Replace can remove specific formatting like bold, italics, or hyperlinks across an entire document at once.
  • Clearing formatting does not remove document metadata like author name or edit history — use Save As or document properties to handle those separately.

The fastest way: Select all and clear formatting

The quickest method works for most situations. Press Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Mac to select every word in the document. Then press Ctrl+Spacebar on Windows or Command+Spacebar on Mac. This removes direct formatting — bold, italics, font choice, font size, color, highlighting — while keeping your paragraph breaks and basic structure intact.

If the keyboard shortcut does not work, you can use the menu instead. On Windows, go to the Home tab, find the Clear Formatting button (it looks like an eraser), and click it. On Mac, go to Format, then Text, then Clear Direct Formatting. The result is the same: your text returns to the default style for your document.

This method leaves behind some things: hyperlinks stay active, tracked changes remain visible, and paragraph-level formatting like indents or line spacing may persist. If you need a cleaner result, use Paste Special instead.

The most thorough way: Paste Special as unformatted text

Paste Special removes everything — fonts, colors, hyperlinks, spacing, and tracked changes — in one step. It works because you are telling Word to paste only the raw text, with no formatting attached.

Here is how: Select all your text with Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac). Copy it with Ctrl+C or Command+C. Then open a new blank document. On Windows, press Ctrl+Shift+V to open Paste Special. On Mac, go to Edit menu, then Paste Special. Choose Unformatted Text and click OK. Word pastes only the words, with no formatting at all.

Your text will appear in the default font and size for a blank document, usually Calibri or Times New Roman at 11 or 12 points. Paragraph breaks stay, but indents, tabs, and line spacing reset to defaults. This is the most reliable way to remove hyperlinks, tracked changes, and hidden formatting all at once.

Removing specific formatting with Find and Replace

If you want to keep some formatting but remove only certain kinds — for example, removing all bold but keeping italics — use Find and Replace. This is also the best way to remove hyperlinks while keeping the text they pointed to.

Press Ctrl+H (Windows) or Command+H (Mac) to open Find and Replace. At the bottom of the dialog, click Format (Windows) or More Options then Format (Mac). In the Find section, choose the formatting you want to remove — Bold, Italic, Font Color, or Hyperlink. Leave the Replace section blank. Click Replace All. Word removes that formatting from every instance in the document.

To remove hyperlinks specifically, open Find and Replace, click Format in the Find section, choose Hyperlink, leave Replace blank, and click Replace All. The text stays but the link disappears. This is useful when you want to keep the words but break the connection to an external URL.

What clearing formatting does not remove

Clearing formatting cleans up what you see on the page, but it does not touch document metadata — the behind-the-scenes information Word stores about who created the file, who edited it, and when. If you copied text from someone else's document, that author name may still appear in the document properties even after you clear all formatting.

To remove metadata, go to File, then Info (Windows) or File, then Properties (Mac). Look for a button that says Check for Issues or Inspect Document. Click it and choose Remove All for any metadata you want to delete. Alternatively, use Save As and save the document as a new file — this often strips some metadata, though not all.

If privacy is your main concern, clearing formatting is a good first step, but it is not a complete solution. Treat it as part of a larger process: clear formatting, check document properties, and consider whether the document needs to be shared at all.

Clearing formatting in tables and special elements

Tables, text boxes, and headers or footers do not always respond to the standard clear formatting commands. If you have a table with colored cells or formatted text inside, select just the table cells you want to change, then use Clear Formatting or Paste Special as before. The table structure stays, but the formatting inside it goes.

Headers and footers are separate from the main document. To clear formatting in a header or footer, double-click it to open it for editing, select all the text inside with Ctrl+A, then clear formatting as usual. Close the header or footer when you are done.

Text boxes work the same way: click inside the box to select it, then select all text and clear formatting. Shapes with text inside them may require you to click the text first before the formatting commands work.

When clearing formatting causes problems

Clearing all formatting at once can sometimes make a document harder to read if it relied on formatting to show structure — for example, if section headings were bold and larger than body text, removing that formatting makes them look the same. After you clear formatting, you may need to reapply some of it to restore readability.

If you are working with a document that uses styles — predefined formatting sets like Heading 1, Body Text, or Quote — clearing formatting may break those styles. The text will no longer be connected to the style definition, so if you later change the Heading 1 style, that text will not update. To avoid this, use Paste Special instead of Clear Formatting when you are working with styled documents.

Before you clear formatting from a document you did not create, save a copy first. That way you can go back to the original if the result is not what you expected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does clearing formatting remove tracked changes?

Clearing formatting does not remove tracked changes. To remove them, go to the Review tab, click the arrow next to Track Changes, and choose Accept All Changes or Reject All Changes. Paste Special as unformatted text will remove tracked changes because it pastes only the final text, not the change history.

Will clearing formatting delete my comments?

No. Comments are stored separately from formatting. To remove comments, go to the Review tab, click Delete, and choose Delete All Comments. Clearing formatting will not touch them.

Can I undo clearing formatting if I change my mind?

Yes, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac) when ready after clearing formatting to undo it. If you have already closed and reopened the document, undo will not work — that is why saving a copy before you clear formatting is a good idea.

Does Paste Special as unformatted text work the same way on Mac and Windows?

The result is the same, but the steps are slightly different. Windows uses Ctrl+Shift+V to open Paste Special, while Mac requires you to go through the Edit menu. Both options paste only the text with no formatting.

What if I only want to remove color and bold but keep italics?

Use Find and Replace with Format. Open Find and Replace, click Format in the Find section, choose Bold, leave Replace blank, and click Replace All to remove all bold. Repeat for color. Italics will stay because you did not tell Word to remove them.