If you’re having trouble adjusting text or paragraph formatting in your document, this article outlines common causes and solutions. You’ll learn how to fix issues like locked styles, blank pages, or formatting inconsistencies after importing or copying text.
Requirements
- You have Editor or Owner permissions for the document or section.
- The file’s style guide is correctly configured and unlocked.
- You’ve published your most recent changes to avoid conflicting edits.
Why aren’t my changes being applied properly?
- Check style guide settings. The applied style may be locked.
- Unlock the style. In the Style guide, locate and unlock the style to enable edits.
- Clear text formatting. Highlight affected paragraphs and select Clear within the Formatting drop down, from the Edit toolbar to reset text to the default style.
- Check for hard returns. Hidden paragraph breaks or line returns can prevent formatting from applying across sections.
- Confirm editing access. Even document owners may encounter locked styles if editing restrictions are applied to the style guide. If you want to make edits to the restrictions applied to the style guide, make sure that you have the Editor role.
Note: Clearing formatting resets text to default styling and may remove emphasis. Clearing contents of a cell removes the link. Reapply as needed after clearing.
Why can’t I delete a blank page?
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Turn on non-printing characters. This option is located in the Edit toolbar with the ¶ icon.
After turning on non-printing characters, you may see the ¶ icons which can indicate that return/enter was pressed to move content to the next page.
- Delete any unnecessary returns or breaks. If multiple returns were used to move text to a new page, delete them to remove the extra space.
- Check for section breaks. Hover over the section break and click X to remove it, or adjust Section properties to ensure no page break is inserted before the section.
- Inspect margins and page size. Inconsistent settings across neighboring sections can cause blank pages; adjust these in Section Properties.
- Use the Document outline to identify and remove any empty sections contributing to the blank page.
How do I copy and paste content without losing formatting?
There are a few ways to preserve formatting when copying content between documents.
Option 1: Use the Format painter tool
- Select the text or content you want to copy.
- In the Edit toolbar, open Formatting and select Painter.
- Paste the formatting onto the target section.
- Double-click Format painter to apply formatting to multiple selections.
Learn more on the format painter tool.
Option 2: Copy entire sections
- In the Document outline, right-click a section and select Copy or press Ctrl + C.
- In the destination document, click a blank area in the outline.
- Right-click and select Paste or press Ctrl + V to paste the section.
Option 3: Preserve formatting while pasting
- Use Ctrl + Shift + V to paste content without inheriting destination formatting.
- For linked content, reapply styles manually if needed.
Copy and paste within a table
For flow-through formatting in a cell, you must first select Include link formatting.
- Right-click on the source or destination link and select Cell properties.
- From the Cell properties panel, scroll down to Advanced options.
- Select Include link formatting.
Tip: When working with tables or structured data, ensure both documents share consistent styles and table structures.
To learn more, read Format linked values.
Formatting issues when pasting from spreadsheets
- Option 1: Deselect Include formatting when using the blue clipboard icon after pasting.
- Option 2: Apply a style guide within your document to maintain consistent formatting for future imports.
Tip: Use the first option for quick, one-time fixes. Use the second option for ongoing consistency.
Alignment issues
If you're having issues with the alignment of your content, we recommend checking these areas:
- Use the Format painter if existing formatting is trying to be copied.
- Review alignment settings in the Edit toolbar.
- Review non-printing characters to check if extra characters are altering alignment.
- Review indentation settings within Paragraph properties.
- Check style guide settings.
- Clear text formatting and realign text.
Things to know
- Locked styles may prevent changes until unlocked by a document owner.
- Clearing formatting removes manual overrides and resets text to default paragraph style.
- When copying across documents, always verify that both documents reference the same style guide for best results.