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How can I selectively remove direct formatting in Word 2010?

I have a very large document which I started creating before I learned anything about using 'styles' in Word.  It has been compiled from a number of previously-separate documents. As a consequence, bits of the text have different kinds of direct formatting applied, and therefore are no longer controlled by the default settings of the style. I want everything in the document to be controlled by the style defaults. 

I am aware that it is possible to remove direct character formatting using control+SPACE. However, this removes italics as well as direct formatting such as text size and font.

Is it possible to remove direct formatting of font and text size but retain my italics? The document is absolutely littered with them, and putting italics back in manually is not an option. 

Cheers,

David

Answer
Answer

You can use Find & Replace to replace the italic formatting with the Emphasis character style (which is formatted in italics). Then select all text and remove direct character formatting, except for character styles in the following way: In the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S), click the Style Inspector icon, and click the Clear Character Formatting button.

Stefan Blom
Microsoft 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator (Office)
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
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Please note that I do not work for Microsoft
MVP program info: https://mvp.microsoft.com/
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Last updated May 10, 2023 Views 3,609 Applies to: