Fixing a Word document where the formatting has gone wrong

Most Word formatting problems come from invisible characters or from text pasted in from a website carrying its own styling. Once you can see those hidden marks the fix is usually obvious.

1. 1

   Turn on the hidden marks

   On the Home tab click the ¶ button (or press Ctrl+Shift+8). Dots are spaces, arrows are tabs, and the ¶ symbol is a paragraph break. Suddenly the mystery gaps have a cause.

2. 2

   Clear the imported formatting

   Select the problem text and press Ctrl+Spacebar to strip character formatting, then Ctrl+Q to reset paragraph formatting. If it came from a website, use Home, Clear All Formatting (the A with an eraser) instead.

3. 3

   Paste properly next time

   Instead of Ctrl+V, use Ctrl+Shift+V, or right-click and pick the Keep Text Only paste option. This brings the words without the website styling.

   Tip: You can make this the default: File, Options, Advanced, then set the pasting dropdowns to Keep Text Only.

4. 4

   Use styles rather than manual formatting

   Apply Heading 1 and Heading 2 from the Home tab rather than making text big and bold by hand. Change the style once and every heading updates, and you get a working contents page for free.

5. 5

   Deal with stubborn page breaks

   If a paragraph keeps jumping to the next page, right-click it, choose Paragraph, then the Line and Page Breaks tab and untick Page break before and Keep with next.