Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Changing Text Formatting

When you're typing, each new character you type takes on the formatting of the character before, unless you do something (such as pressing Ctrl+I to turn on italic formatting) to change it. The first character you type in a paragraph takes on the formatting of the paragraph mark.

To restore character formatting—that is, to make it match the formatting of the current paragraph's paragraph mark—bring up the Styles and Formatting task pane, select the text, and click Clear Formatting. (Equivalently, you can press Ctrl+Spacebar.)

Select a character or characters, click Format, Font (or right-click and choose Font), and you will see Word's main font formatting options (see Figure 15.8). Most of the character (Word says "font") ...