Use Control-Space To Clear Formatting In Word

12:00PM March 20, 2009 | Angus Kidman

Even when you’re a dedicated keyboard shortcut junkie, there’s always something new to learn. I’ve often needed to clear rubbish formatting in Word documents, and have even set up my own macro to do so — little realising that you can simply select text and type Control-Space to strip any Word text back to default formatting. Click the link below for a demonstration of this technique on video. (Note that while this also works in Outlook and PowerPoint, in Excel, Control-Space chooses the current column.)

Comments

Molokov

March 20, 2009 at 2:31 PM

I love Ctrl-Space, always useful.

Unless, of course, you’re using Open Office… in which case it does something ENTIRELY different. Why can’t the hotkeys be the same as MS Word? Sigh…

bugwan

March 20, 2009 at 4:07 PM

I can now say that I learnt something this day!

It turns out that while Ctrl-space selects the current column in Excel, Alt-Space selects the row…

Thanks guys

MisterK

March 21, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Does anyone know if there is an equivalent for openoffice?

J

October 8, 2009 at 7:57 PM

Thanks for this awesome tip it has saved me turning hulk!

Word

February 10, 2010 at 3:09 AM

bugwan,

alt+space brings up the Size, Restore, Minimize Menu

Shit+space selects the row in excel.

Thanks.

Work