33 min read
Word's Hidden & Advanced Features
Reveal Formatting, Spike, Researcher, Immersive Reader, and recovery.
Reveal Formatting and Style Inspector
A paragraph will not stay Heading 2. Select it → Shift+F1 (Reveal Formatting) or Home → Styles → Style Inspector — see Direct formatting overrides (manual 14 pt blue) fighting the style.
Clear All direct formatting: Ctrl+Space (character) and Ctrl+Q (paragraph) before reapplying the style.
Spike, Researcher, and recovery
Spike moves non-adjacent blocks: select text → Ctrl+F3 (cut to Spike), repeat, then Ctrl+Shift+F3 paste all at once — useful gathering policy bullets from old files.
References → Researcher searches sources for sixth-form appendix citations. File → Info → Version History restores yesterday's file if a chapter vanishes.
Hands-on steps
Goal
Fix one paragraph that will not hold Heading 2 using Reveal Formatting.
James Okonkwo adds this to NorthgateHandbook.docx as part of one polished student handbook, policy pack, and open-day collateral before families arrive.
Select paragraph
Where
Do this
You should see
- Paragraph selected.
Verification
Check your work
You are correct if all of these are true:
- Problem paragraph now matches other Heading 2 entries in Navigation Pane.
- Reveal Formatting shows no stray direct font override.
- TOC will pick up the heading after F9 update.
More lessons in Microsoft Word · Next: Modern Microsoft 365 & AI Features · Previous: Troubleshooting Word