Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Selecting Default Paragraph Formatting.

Selecting Default Paragraph Formatting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 15, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word provides an easy way to remove any explicit paragraph formatting that was done to a paragraph. This is all you have to do:

  1. Select the paragraphs that you want to remove the formatting from.
  2. Press Ctrl+Q.

The paragraph formatting for the selected text will be set back to its default condition, meaning that the paragraph reverts to the formatting defined in the style applied to it.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (250) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Selecting Default Paragraph Formatting.

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. ...

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