Using Microsoft Word 365 (subscription) - unable to change text color, formatting, etc.

Question

I've subscribed to Msoft Word for Mac 365 for more than a year without having this problem. I've spent hours online (including in MIcrosoft's Support pages) looking for a solution, with no success.

The problem suddenly appeared when all the text in a document that had some text colored red or blue turned black and was completely struck-through. I've been unable to recovered the colored text or remove the total strike-through.

I would much appreciate a helpful answer from a Word for Mac 365 expert!

Thanks in advance,

[Moderator Note: PII Removed]

Answer 1

Hi Jack Sprat,

Based on the symptoms you’re describing, this is most consistent with Track Changes / markup display, not lost text.

In Word for Mac, go to Review and check these first:

• Make sure Track Changes is turned off. It can be enabled accidentally, including with Command + Shift + E.
• In Display for Review, switch between Simple Markup, All Markup, and especially No Markup.

No Markup shows the clean final text, while All Markup can display deletions as strikethrough.

Also check Review > Show Markup > Balloons, since deleted text can appear differently inline versus in balloons.

The reason your red or blue text may now appear black with strikethrough is that tracked‑change colors are controlled by Word’s review settings, and can vary depending on the document and the computer or account that created the revisions.

If switching to No Markup restores the text, then nothing was erased, the document was simply being shown in review mode. If those edits are no longer needed, use Accept or Reject to remove the markup permanently.

If the text remains crossed out even with markup turned off, then check Format > Font and remove Strikethrough. If it keeps returning, also verify whether a Style was modified and is applying strikethrough formatting.

Please let me know if this proves useful to you, or if you would like further assistance.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment”.   

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

The symptoms match two common Word behaviors on Mac: Track Changes markup (deletions shown as struck-through text, often in a single color) and possible formatting corruption from coauthoring/sync.

Try these steps in order on Word for Mac 365.

1. Check if Track Changes is causing the strike-through
   1. On the Review tab, look at the Tracking group.
   2. In the Display for Review or Simple Markup/All Markup dropdown, switch to No Markup.
   3. If the strike-through disappears, the text is not really deleted; it is just being shown as deleted markup.
   4. To permanently remove the strike-through and keep only the final text, use Review → Accept → Accept All Changes (or accept/reject individually as needed).
2. Check Track Changes color settings (if colors look wrong) If the text is still showing in unexpected colors when Track Changes is on:
   1. Go to Review → open the Tracking dialog launcher (small arrow in the Tracking group).
   2. Select Advanced Options.
   3. For Color settings (Insertions, Deletions, etc.), either:
      • Set them to By author, or
      • Choose a single color (for example, Turquoise) if a uniform color is preferred. These settings affect only how markup appears on that Mac; they do not change the underlying text formatting.
3. If formatting is corrupted from coauthoring/sync If this document has been shared (OneDrive/SharePoint) and coauthored, Word can lose formatting (font color, strike-through, table styles) in impacted files. Use the official workaround for Word for Mac: Workaround 1 – Save As a new file
   1. Open the affected document in Word for Mac desktop.
   2. Go to File → Save As and save a new copy as .docx.
   3. Close Word, then reopen the new file.
   4. Reapply the desired formatting (font colors, removal of strike-through) in this new file.
   Workaround 2 – Clear the Office file cache (Mac)
   1. Close Word.
   2. Open Finder.
   3. Press Shift + Command + G to open Go to Folder.
   4. Paste this path and press Enter: ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/OfficeFileCache
   5. Delete the contents of that folder.
   6. Reopen Word and then reopen the document.
   7. Reapply any lost formatting (font colors, removal of strike-through) if needed.
4. Reapply font color and remove strike-through Once Track Changes and any cache/coauthoring issues are handled:
   1. Select the affected text.
   2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the arrow next to Font Color and choose the desired color.
      • If the desired color is not shown, choose More Colors to pick or define a custom color.
   3. In the same Font group, click Strikethrough (or open the Font dialog and clear the Strikethrough option) to remove any remaining strike-through formatting.

If the document is heavily impacted and continues to revert formatting, keep working only in the new Save As copy after clearing the cache, and avoid having multiple people editing it simultaneously until it stabilizes.

---

References:

• Formatting lost when coauthoring a Word document
• Change the track changes color
• Change the font color in a Word document