I have a document with a lot of code snippets. I created a "$code" style to control the formatting (monospace font). It occurred to me that I might be able to turn off spell and grammar check in the style. In the Language option, I found a checkbox for "Do not check spelling and grammar". I checked it and saved the changes.

The wavy red underlines disappeared from the code that was selected and few lines around it, but most of the rest of the document still have them. If I select some code and reapply the style, the underlines disappear.

I also tried copying some code with the underlines to another location in the document and the underlines did not appear.

How come the style setting isn't applied to the whole document?

I just tried closing the document and reopening it. Now the style appears to be correctly applied everywhere.

There might have been direct formatting applied to some text (causing a conflict with the setting in the style). By reapplying the style you got it to reset.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Stefan,

I don't I applied any direct formatting, at least not intentionally, as I don't know how to do that.

Is there some way I can tell if durect formattng has been applied and remove it?

Thanks, J

Direct formatting is any formatting not applied via a style. To explicitly clear direct font and paragraph formatting from text, select it and press Ctrl+SpaceBar and Ctrl+Q.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

OK. So I tried a little test (two actually). In a test document with 10-12 lines of text (one paragraph each). I created a $test style and assigned it to the entire document (all lines).

Test #1

I edited each line to apply some "direct" formatting. I made one line bold, another red, another in a different font, another in a larger point size, etc.

Then I edited the $test style changing several of the font and paragraph settings. When I pressed OK, some of the changes were applied to some of the lines, but not all changes were applied to all lines. I didn;t study it much, but couldn't see an obvious (to me) pattern.

Test #2

Then I right-clicked on one of those lines and selected Styles & Update $test to match selection. All of the formatting of that line was applied to all of the other lines.


This sure looks like either a bug or a design flaw.

If direct font formatting has been applied to more than 50% of a paragraph, it will be cleared when you (re-)apply a paragraph style, otherwise it will be retained.

And note that when you update a paragraph style to match the selection, only the font formatting included in the selection will be incorporated into the style.

To make sure that you reset all font formatting to that of the underlying style, use Ctrl+SpaceBar on the selection. Similarly, use Ctrl+Q to clear the paragraph formatting.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I tried Ctrl+Space. It does as you say. It removes any "direct" formatting within the paragraph.

I tried Ctrl+Q, but couldn't see that it did anything. Can you give me an example?

Change paragraph formatting such as line spacing; for example, you can change to double spacing by pressing Ctrl+2. Then press Ctrl+Q to revert to style defaults.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional