Text Formatting in Word

By the Syncfusion DevTutorials team · Last updated October 20, 2026

Change fonts, sizes, and colors, and use bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlight, superscript, subscript, and clear formatting.

Formatting is how you make text look the way you want: bigger titles, bold warnings, highlighted key points. Good formatting helps readers find what matters. In this lesson, you'll learn every text formatting tool on the Home tab, from fonts and sizes to superscript and subscript.

Open the Word sandbox and follow along. Remember the golden rule: select the text first, then format it.

Where the tools are

All the text formatting tools live in the Font group on the Home tab. Here is a quick tour of each tool and its shortcut—you'll meet each one properly in the sections below:

Hover over any button to see its name.

Font family

The most visible formatting choice you make is the font. The font family (or just font) is the design of the letters. Different fonts suit different jobs:

• Calibri and Arial are clean and modern, and good for most documents.
• Times New Roman and Georgia look traditional, and suit formal letters and essays.
• Courier New gives every letter the same width, like a typewriter.

To change the font, select the text, click the font name box on the Home tab, and pick a font from the list.

Font size

Alongside the letter design, you can also control how big the letters are. Font size is measured in points. Bigger number, bigger text.

Select the text, then pick a size from the size box, or type a number into it and press Enter.

Font color

After choosing a font and size, you can also change the color of the text. Font color changes the color of the letters.

1. Select the text.
2. Click the small arrow next to the Font Color button (the A with a colored bar).
3. Pick a color.

Use color sparingly. Dark text on a white page is easiest to read. Save bright colors for a word or two that really matters.

Bold, italic, and underline

These three are the most common ways to make text stand out:

• Bold (Ctrl + B) makes text thicker. Use it for titles and key words.
• Italic (Ctrl + I) slants the text. Use it for book titles, foreign words, or gentle emphasis.
• Underline (Ctrl + U) draws a line under the text. On screen, readers often mistake underlined text for a link, so use it carefully.

Each button is a toggle: click once to switch it on, and again to switch it off. You can combine them, so text can be bold and italic at the same time.

Strikethrough

Strikethrough draws a line through the middle of the text, like this. It's handy for to-do lists, or to show a price that has been reduced.

Select the text and click the Strikethrough button on the Home tab.

Highlight text

Highlight works like a highlighter pen: it colors the background behind the text.

1. Select the text.
2. Click the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color button (the marker pen).
3. Pick a color. Yellow is the classic choice.

To remove a highlight, select the text and choose No Color.

Clear formatting

When text has collected too many different styles, you don't have to undo them one at a time. Clear Formatting removes all the formatting from the selected text and puts it back to plain, normal text. It's the fastest way to start over.

Select the text and click Clear Formatting (the A with an eraser) on the Home tab.

Superscript

Superscript makes text small and raises it above the line, like the 2 in x² or the "th" in 5ᵗʰ.

Select the characters to raise and press Ctrl + Shift + =, or click Superscript (x²) on the Home tab.

Subscript

Subscript is superscript's opposite: it makes text small and lowers it below the line, like the 2 in H₂O.

Select the characters to lower and press Ctrl + =, or click Subscript (x₂) on the Home tab.

Common mistakes

Here are the most common traps, and how to fix them:

Exercise

Now it's time to practise formatting yourself.

Click New in the sandbox title bar to start with a blank page. Then type these three paragraphs:

• Science Notes
• Water is H2O and area is measured in m2.
• Read chapter 4 before Friday. Old deadline: Monday.

Now do each task and press Check.

What to remember

• All text formatting tools are in the Font group on the Home tab.
• Font family is the letter design; font size is measured in points.
• Ctrl + B bold, Ctrl + I italic, Ctrl + U underline. Each is a toggle.
• Strikethrough crosses text out; highlight colors the background.
• Superscript (Ctrl + Shift + =) raises text; subscript (Ctrl + =) lowers it. Select only the characters that move.
• Clear Formatting resets text to plain without deleting it.
• Use emphasis sparingly so the important things stand out.

In the next lesson, you'll format whole paragraphs: alignment, spacing, and indentation.