View and Compare Formatting

Summary: View a Microsoft Word 2003 document’s section formatting and compare it to other sections or text.

When putting together a complex Microsoft Word 2003 document, it may be useful to see the formatting used for a particular section and compare it to formatting used elsewhere. This is especially true as Word supports a myriad of formatting options. There are paragraph options such as Orphan/Widow control and Keep with Next, font options such as Underline and Bold, alignment options such as Left and Center, and much more.

To view the formatting of a particular block of text, highlight the text and press SHIFT-F1. The formatting used for the first section of the highlighted text will appear in a right pane next to your document labeled “Reveal Formatting”. Highlight different text in your document and that text’s formatting will be shown.

To compare the formatting of different selections of blocks of text in your document, first reveal a particular section’s formatting as shown above. Then, in the right pane, check “Compare to another selection”. Highlight a new selection of text. In the right pane, you will see formatting described like so (your examples may vary):

“16 pt -> 12 pt”
“Kern at 16 pt -> No kerning”
“Level 1 -> None”

The description before the “->” symbol is for the formatting of your first selection of text, and the description after the “->” symbol is for the formatting of your second text selection.