How to Undo Automatic Formatting in Word 2016

Word 2010 For Dummies

You have two quick ways to undo autoformatting in Word 2016. The first, obviously, is to press Ctrl+Z on the keyboard, which is the Undo command. That's easy.

You can also use the Lightning Bolt icon to undo autoformatting. Clicking the icon displays a drop-down menu, shown here. Use the options displayed to control the AutoFormat options as you type.

AutoFormat options.

The first option simply undoes what's been done, the same as pressing Ctrl+Z on the keyboard. The second option disables the feature so that it never happens again. Lots of people like that option. The final option displays the AutoCorrect dialog box's AutoFormat as You Type tab, shown here.

The AutoFormat as You Type tab.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.