font and size options blank on selecting all despite uniform formatting

Question

font and size options blank on selecting all despite uniform formatting

kubidushu 0

The font/size options in the home tab go blank despite no changes in formatting.

For example, when I open a brand new doc, keep pressing Enter, in the second page, line 5, then select all, the ribbon turn blank (as if mixed fonts). All of the paragraph marks are normal in style.

The version is 16.101.2

Selecting all: enter image description here

One more Enter and selecting all (blank ribbon): enter image description here

Selecting partially shows the font: enter image description here

Is there anything i can do to fix it?

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5 answers

Answer 1

Dear @kubidushu,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

Based on your description and provided images, I have run a few tests on my side and I want to share my insights and recommended method for you in this case:

When I do the same as you in Microsoft Word application on my MacBook, I have the same issue if my line counts about over 49.

User's image

I also run a test in Microsoft Word application on Windows environment, and the behavior is the same as Word app in MacOS.
However, if I select all the normal paragraph with a lot of lines (over 95 lines), this issue does not happen.

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I also find in all available documents from Microsoft, but there is no official confirmation for this issue. So, it may be by design of the Microsoft Word application if you press Enter multiple times like that scenario.

In order to help you, I run a test for Microsoft Word in web version as well. Luckily, this behavior does not happen in web version. So, if you still want to do it for your works, I highly recommend that you may try it in web version of Microsoft Word as alternative method in this time.

User's image

I hope that my testing can help you to understand this issue and I appreciate your sharing. Wish you a pleasant day!

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Anonymous

2025-10-08T03:26:09.2233333+00:00

Dear @kubidushu,

Just following up to see if the answer I shared helped out with your issue. Please kindly take a look in my alternative method.

If you’ve got any updates or still need help, feel free to give me a shout, I’m happy to dig into it more with you.

And if you found the answer helpful in any way, we kindly invite you to mark it as the accepted answer. Once marked, it will automatically be pinned to the top. Since many other users also search for information in this community, your valuable contribution will help them easily find the right channel and useful insights more quickly.

Thank you very much, and I wish you a great day.
Anonymous

2025-10-10T07:13:12.38+00:00

Dear @kubidushu,

I just want to check if you need anything else for your issue and I would like to know if my answer can help you resolve it.

Please kindly check my answer and feel free to contact at any time in order to let me know your feedback. This will help our community become stronger.

Thank you for your time and cooperation!

Answer 2

Stefan Blom 351.1K MVP Volunteer Moderator

This is a known limitation in Word. For any selection which is large enough, you will see options such as font and size grayed out, as if there were conflicting settings in the selection, even if there are no such conflicts.

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2025-10-07T13:05:48.5333333+00:00

I can't agree with others or reproduce. As shown below the font & size are clearly visible:

The one difference I notice is that your Font group on the Home tab as well as Tino's indicates that an East Asian Language is applied. That may be the cause.

As a side note I can think of absolutely no reason why the return key should be pressed repeatedly — especially not that many times.
Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-07T19:03:45.24+00:00

Bob,

My experience with Word for Mac is too limited to tell for sure what happens there.

I do know that in Word for Windows, you have to select a relatively large text range to see this happening.

The screen shot below shows 20 pages of text in 12 point Times New Roman. When I select all of it, Word cannot display the font and size and leaves those boxes blank, although all pages are using the same font and font size.
Charles Kenyon 170.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-07T19:04:19.8166667+00:00

https://www.shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/rules_enterparagraphs.html
Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2025-10-10T16:18:19.82+00:00

I do see it here now but — based on limited experimentation — only if the selection exceeds 50 paragraphs.
Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-10T17:13:48.9533333+00:00

Indeed, it must be quite a large selection. Exactly how large it must be may depend on the type of formatting as well as on other document content; I am not sure.
Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2025-10-10T19:53:23.2333333+00:00

Ahhh, sweet mysteries of Word 🤪
Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-10T23:39:32.45+00:00

Ahhh, sweet mysteries of Word

In the words of Bob Buckland:

Source: https://wordmvp.com/

Answer 3

Betsy Ford 0

This has been a problem for years. As a work-around, select one line or one paragraph; set the formatting you want; then, while that text is still selected, in > Home> Styles, right-click on Normal, and select Update Normal to Match Selection. Then use Crl+A to select everything in the document, and click the Normal style to make it all the same. User's image

Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-25T00:12:03.0533333+00:00

Of course, there are situations in which you do not want to apply the Normal style to all the text paragraphs. For example, your document may be structured with headings.

You can modify any style, Normal or other style, without re-applying it, for example via the Styles pane.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

lkdfhw8o 0

One additional thing I noticed from the screenshots is that this doesn't appear to affect the actual document formatting—it only affects what the ribbon is able to display for very large selections. I've seen similar UI behavior where selecting a smaller range or simply placing the cursor inside a paragraph immediately shows the correct font and size again.

If that's the case, it seems more like a ribbon/interface limitation than a formatting issue. It would be interesting to know whether Microsoft has acknowledged this internally, since multiple users have now reproduced it on both Windows and macOS with different versions of Word.

Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-08-03T19:04:02.6733333+00:00

@lkdfhw8o

It is definitely just a display issue (or bug!), not a problem with the document formatting. It may be confusing, obviously, especially for users who haven't come across the limitation before.

I don't know if the issue is recognized and documented by Microsoft somewhere.

If you want to, you can report it to Microsoft via the feedback portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .

The current thread is old (started in October 2025) and it will be locked.