ID: Q176845
The information in this article applies to:
When you use the reveal formatting feature in Word, it does not display some of the character style formats you applied to your document. For example, if you apply an italic character style to a selection and then manually remove that formatting by pressing CTRL+I, the italic character style does not display when you reveal formatting, even though it is still applied.
By design, when you use the reveal formatting feature, Word displays only the formats that are currently active for the selection. Word does not display the style formats that are not currently active, such as those that have been overridden by other formatting. For example, if you apply direct formatting that overrides a character style format, Word no longer displays the character style format when you reveal formatting.
If you want to see all the style formatting currently applied to a character, click Style on the Format menu. You can compare these settings with the formats Word displays when you reveal formatting to determine which settings have been overridden.
The Reveal Formatting button (called the Help Tool Command) is not automatically displayed when you install Word. To place the Help Tool icon onto a toolbar, do the following:
1. On the Tools menu, click Customize. Click the Commands tab.
2. Under Categories, select All Commands.
3. Under Commands, find HelpTool and drag it to a toolbar.
4. Click Close.
For additional information about this situation in earlier versions of Word, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q106255
TITLE : WD: Some Style Formats Not Displayed When You Reveal
Formatting
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto kbprbLast Reviewed: February 11, 1999