Microsoft KB article re: POP3 issues after Office 2016 update
As I mentioned in an earlier post, many POP3 mail users have reported some issues with Outlook after the latest Office 2016 automatic update, which was applied a few days ago (around February 23-24). Microsoft has posted a new Knowledge Base (KB) article addressing these issues. You can find the KB article by clicking this link: Email is deleted from server or duplicated in Outlook 2016 when downloaded using POP3
In addition to the issue I discussed previously, which involved the repeated downloading of previously downloaded mail messages, some POP3 users have also experienced an even more serious problem: After mail has been downloaded, it is deleted from the server, regardless of whether users have configured Outlook to keep mail on the server for a specific number of days, such as 14 days. (This option is useful for people who receive mail on multiple devices – as most of us do nowadays.)
The first part of the KB article addresses the problem of mail being deleted from the server after downloading. The second part of the KB article addresses the problem of duplicate e-mail messages being downloaded over and over, and in particular explains how to roll back to the previous automatic update.
For those of you who would like to roll back to an earlier update, you might find it somewhat easier to follow the steps outlined in this post by Outlook MVP Robert Sparnaaij: Uninstall Office 365 Click-To-Run Updates What makes Robert’s post especially user-friendly is that you can copy and paste the sample text (which seems to work better than if you type it yourself at the C: prompt). Also see my earlier post, POP3 Mail Users Report Problems in Outlook After Office 2016 Update, for more information and instructions.
Thanks for making my book a “Hot new release” on Amazon!
Many thanks to everyone who has bought my new Word 2016 book (Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Word 2016). Because of you, the book has been listed as a “Hot New Release” on Amazon – in several different categories (including Microsoft Word Guides and Word Processing) – over the past few days.
A quick note for anyone who is interested in buying multiple copies: I can provide you with a code for a substantial discount on bulk purchases. Just drop me an e-mail message. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can with more information.
Again, I very much appreciate your support!
POP3 Mail Users Report Problems in Outlook After Office 2016 Update (FIXED)
NOTE: Around March 7, Microsoft released an updated build of Office 2016, build no. 6568.2036, that fixed the issues described in this post. To apply this build, or a later one (if available at the time you read this update), click the File tab in Outlook or any other Office 2016 program, then click “Office Account” or “Account.” Navigate to “Office Updates” at the right side of the screen. If the version shown is earlier than 6568.2036 – i.e., a lower number – click “Update Options” and then either click “Update Now” (if shown) or click “Enable Updates” and then click “Update Now.” Be aware that (1) you might have to allow the duplicate messages to download one final time; and (2) the update might take a while. Also, the update will be applied to all of the Office 2016 programs.
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Some Outlook 2016 users who have POP3 mail accounts – including me – are reporting an issue involving multiple (i.e., repetitive) downloads of previously downloaded e-mail messages after the latest Office 2016 update. This issue appears to affect only users who have chosen to leave messages on the server, rather than deleting the messages from the server after downloading them.
The update, which occurred automatically sometime over the past three or four days, applied build (version) number 6568.2025. (This is the version number that is displayed at the right side of the screen under Office Updates when you click File, Account or File, Office Account.)
I noticed the problem yesterday. Whenever Outlook automatically checked for new messages (or when I manually clicked “Send / Receive”), it downloaded not only new messages, but also hundreds of messages that had already been downloaded. (Oddly, the issue affected only one of the two POP3 accounts that I use with Outlook 2016.) And it did so repeatedly. Fortunately, I could delete the duplicate messages by clicking “Unread,” selecting all with Ctrl A, and pressing the Delete key (which did not affect any of the “Read” messages already in my Inbox).
That temporary fix wasn’t particularly satisfactory, since duplicate messages continued to download throughout the day and evening.
A preliminary search on the Internet revealed only a few exchanges in which users complained about the problem. A Microsoft MVP (an expert user who is not an employee of Microsoft) eventually wrote to say he could confirm the issue and would report it to Microsoft.
Today, I found additional help in the form of a couple of web sites that provide instructions for rolling back to a previous build / version of Office 2016.[1] It took a while – I got error messages at first – but with the help of those two sites, I was able to roll back to the previous Office 2016 update, which applied build 6366.2068. When I first launched Outlook, the program downloaded a huge batch of duplicate messages (more than 400!), which I promptly deleted. But since then, Outlook has worked normally. That is to say, automatic and manual downloads produce only new messages, not duplicates of messages that have already downloaded.
If you have experienced the issue with duplicate e-mail messages after the latest Office 2016 update, you can try to roll back to an earlier update. CAUTION: I would recommend doing so only if you are a fairly advanced user – someone who is comfortable configuring your own computer.[2] Also, I would recommend closing out of Office 2016 while performing the steps. You do need to be connected to the Internet, however, so that Microsoft can download and apply the previous update.
Before attempting this procedure, you must disable future updates. From within any Office 2016 program, click File, Account (or File, Office Account) and then navigate to the Updates section, click the “Update Options” button, and choose “Disable Updates.” NOTE: if you disable updates, you will have to check for and download the next one, due sometime in late March or early April, manually (by enabling updates again from the same screen in your Office 2016 program).
After you disable updates, you will open a DOS command prompt (as an Administrator) to apply the previous update. In both Windows 8 and Windows 10, the simplest way to open a DOS command prompt as an Administrator is by right-clicking the Start button at the left side of the Windows Taskbar and choosing “Command Prompt (Admin).”
Next, you’ll enter a text string with commands for downloading the previous Office 2016 update. To simplify the process, I’m just providing links to the two sites that I found helpful. The one I’ve listed immediately below offers relatively straightforward steps that worked well for me.
These instructions are based on information contained in this MS Outlook Info site run by Outlook “MVP” Robert Sparnaaij: Uninstall Office… Click-to-Run Updates
After I opened a DOS command prompt in a separate window, I simply copied the example text from the MS Outlook Info page and pasted it into the command prompt. In particular, I began by copying (and pasting) the text under “Office Repair,” Step 3, #1 (below “Office 2016”). Then, leaving the cursor in the same position within the command prompt, I copied (and pasted) the text under Step 4, second example (second bullet).
After pasting the entire text string, I pressed the Enter key, and a Microsoft window appeared with a message about downloading an update. I let it run. Afterwards, I opened Word and Outlook and checked the build number (File, Account in Word / File, Office Account in Outlook). Lo and behold, the build number had reverted to 6366.2068.
Be sure to read the instructions carefully – more than once – before you begin. And as always, proceed with caution.
As a reference, I also recommend this post by the venerable Diane Poremsky of Slipstick Systems: Uninstall Updates in Office ‘Click to Run’ (and also see Diane’s February 26 post about the POP issues related to the Office 2016 update, Outlook 2016: POP Problems After Last Update).
Good luck!
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[1] Many thanks to both of the site administrators (Robert Sparnaaij and Diane Poremsky) for providing such helpful information and instructions!
[2] Also be aware that these steps are designed for click-to-run versions of Office 2016. Most people have click-to-run versions, but it’s possible that the rollback procedure won’t work if you happen to have a version of Office 2016 that doesn’t fall into that category.
Tiplet: Deleting an extra page (Word)
Over the past few years, my clients have frequently reported difficulty deleting an extra page that appears at the end of a document – typically a pleading. Sometimes the problem involves a table (whether an actual columnar table containing data or a single-cell table used for a signature block) that falls at the end of what should be the last page. The most obvious solution, removing the extra page by positioning the cursor after the table and pressing Delete or Backspace, doesn’t work as expected.
There are a couple of possible solutions, depending on the exact situation. Although highly counterintuitive, this one usually works:
With your cursor at the very top of the additional page, open the Paragraph dialog by either right-clicking and choosing “Paragraph” or clicking the dialog launcher (the small gray square with an arrow on the diagonal) at the bottom of the Paragraph group on the Home tab. When the Paragraph dialog opens, locate the Spacing section (about halfway down the Indents and Spacing tab), then click the “Line and Spacing” drop-down and select “Exactly.” Next, under “At” – and this is the critical step – set the number of points (by using the spinner arrows or simply typing the number in the box) to 1 (one) pt. Yes, one!
Keep in mind that points measure the height of the characters; that there are 72 points in a vertical inch; and that 12 points, while not the same as true single spacing, is approximately one line. Setting the line spacing of that extra page (really just an extra empty paragraph that has spilled onto the next page) to 1 point usually shrinks the empty paragraph sufficiently to pull it up to the previous page.
This less-than-obvious remedy has helped many of my clients resolve an extremely vexing issue. I hope it helps you, too!
My new Word 2016 book is now available on Amazon
My new book, Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Word 2016, is available on Amazon.com. Not merely an update of my Word 2010 book, it contains many brand-new tutorials (including the ones about creating, generating, and troubleshooting a Table of Contents and a Table of Authorities).
Here is a link to the book’s page on Amazon: Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Word 2016
There is no preview available on the Amazon page. However, you can view and/or download the Table of Contents by clicking the following link: Word 2016 Book – TOC
Please keep in mind that, like my other two books, this is a publish-on-demand item – meaning that the book will be printed after you order it. Therefore, it will take somewhat longer to receive your order than if it were a standard book (i.e., one where copies are “in stock” at all times). I appreciate your patience!
Office 2016 update (patch) disables customizations
Microsoft recently confirmed that its December 17, 2015 update (patch) for the Office 2016 suite[1] wiped out customizations for some users, including AutoText entries, AutoComplete entries, styles, macros, and similar items. In particular, customizations stored in the Normal.dotm template (the default template in Word) and the NormalEmail.dotm template (the default template in Outlook) might be – or appear to be – missing.[2]
Apparently, the customizations still exist, but the update changed the name of one or more files where they are stored, so the programs can’t find the file(s).
For more information, see this blurb from Microsoft, which contains a link to a Microsoft Knowledge Base Article that provides step-by-step instructions on how to fix the problem:
Missing autotext, styles, and other customizations in Word 2016?
Here is a direct link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article that details the resolution:
Missing customizations in Office Word after an update
It appears to be a rather complicated fix, consisting of nearly a dozen steps. If it makes you feel more comfortable, do some additional research first. Also, read through all of the steps before starting, and then go slowly!
It’s a good idea to make copies of / back up your Normal.dotm and NormalEmail.dotm templates on a regular basis anyway in case of file corruption or some other problem. The default location for those files is:
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
With luck, you will be able to make backups before your version of Office 2016 is patched (to build 16.0.6366.xxxx).[3] If your version is patched later on and you lose your customizations, you can browse to the problematic versions of Normal.dotm and NormalEmail.dotm, rename them (e.g., to NormalBad.dotm and NormalEmailBad.dotm[4]), find your backups, and rename those files Normal.dotm and NormalEmail.dotm, respectively. CAUTION: Be sure to exit from Word and Outlook before renaming these templates.
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[1] From what I’ve read, it sounds as though the update that caused the problem was a Windows 10 update, which suggests that only users running Windows 10 are affected. People have reported problems with both Word 2016 and Outlook 2016.
[2] I discovered the problem quite by accident after experiencing some odd changes in the behavior of Word 2016 on my Windows 10 laptop. And after a crash, I noticed that a recovered file was missing my custom styles – so I ended up opening the original file (which still had my custom styles available), copying text that I had added to the recovered file, and then re-saving / backing up the original file. A good reminder to save frequently, as well as to create backup copies of important documents and to store them in the cloud and/or on external media.
[3] To determine the build number of your version of Word 2016 (or Outlook 2016), click the File tab, Account (or Office Account). The build is displayed at right, in the section labeled “Office Updates.” As for backup copies of Normal.dotm and NormalEmail.dotm, there’s nothing wrong with naming the copies Backup of Normal.dotm and Backup of NormalEmail.dotm. You might want to include the current date in the file name (Backup of Normal 1-3-2016.dotm, Backup of NormalEmail 1-3-2016.dotm) so that you know when the file was created.
[4] When I rename a Normal.dotm or NormalEmail.dotm template, I usually use the current date in the name – such as Normal 1-3-2016.dotm or NormalEmail 1-3-2016.dotm. If the templates are problematic, I put that into the name, too: NormalBad 1-3-2016.dotm or NormalEmailBad 1-3-2016.dotm.
Happy Thanksgiving 2015 – and thanks to you!
Best wishes to all of you for a lovely and restful Thanksgiving. May you experience the comforts of home, hearth, family, good friends, and a pleasurable repast – and may you never lack those comforts.
On this day when we contemplate the things, tangible and intangible, for which we are thankful, I want to extend special thanks to you:
My wonderful, inimitable friends and family;
My loyal (and often thought-provoking – in the best possible way!) training and consulting clients;
My delightful trainees (who also keep me on my toes);
My colleagues, many of whom are also dear friends;
The folks at the larger training companies who (to my ever-lasting gratitude) continue to provide me with interesting and enjoyable training gigs;
The amazing IT people and in-house trainers who make my work significantly easier – and sometimes send me clients;
Those of you who have bought one or more of my books; and
My faithful blog readers, of course!
(I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone… if so, it was entirely inadvertent.)
I am incredibly appreciative of your support, assistance, kindness, humor, patience, and constructive criticism over the years. You are the best!
Reassigning Ctrl O to “File Open” in Word 2013 and Word 2016
In a recent blog post, I provided instructions for bypassing the so-called Backstage view (i.e., the File tab’s Open screen / menu) when opening a file with Word 2013 or Word 2016. I suggested using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl F12, which takes you directly to the Open dialog in Windows. That keyboard shortcut comes in handy because in the latest versions of Word, Ctrl O, the once-standard keyboard shortcut for “Open File,” doesn’t work the same way as in previous versions. Rather than producing the Windows Open dialog, it takes a detour through the Backstage view. (But note: If you click File, Options, click the “Save” category, and uncheck “Don’t show the backstage when opening or saving Files,” then click OK, Word automatically reassigns Ctrl O to “Open File.” That step also changes how the Open icon on the Quick Access Toolbar works so that it, too, goes directly to the Open dialog in Windows.)
I thought it might be useful to write a follow-up post that walks people through the process of reassigning the Ctrl O keyboard shortcut in Word 2013 / Word 2016 so that it behaves as it did (does) in older versions. Here are the steps:
- Click the File tab, Options, and when the Word dialog opens, click the Customize Ribbon category at left.
- Toward the bottom left side of the Word dialog, you’ll see an item labeled “Keyboard shortcuts: Customize…” Click the “Customize…” button. The Customize Keyboard dialog will open.
- At the left side of the Customize Keyboard dialog, under “Categories,” File Tab should be highlighted.
- Navigate to the right side of the dialog, under “Commands.” Scroll down to FileOpen and click it. [1] When you click FileOpen, you might notice that some keyboard shortcuts already have been assigned to the command. (If so, they appear in the “Current keys:” box at left.)
- Click in the “Press new shortcut key” box and press and hold the Ctrl key, then tap the letter O. (Be careful to press the letter O, not a zero.)
- Note the message below the “Current keys” box: “Currently assigned to: FileOpenUsingBackstage.” (This is essentially a warning in case you didn’t realize that the key combination you chose is already assigned to another feature or function. If you want to retain the original assignment to that other feature or function, you can select a different key combination.)
- OPTIONAL STEP: Note the “Save changes in” drop-down at the lower left side of the dialog box. By default, Word will save your keyboard reassignment to the NORMAL template (the one that affects the formatting of a new blank document). If you have created your own templates and wish to reassign keyboard shortcuts within one of your own templates, you can click the “Save changes in” drop-down and choose a different template.
- The “Assign” button is now active (no longer grayed out). To proceed with the key reassignment, click the button.
- Click Close, then be sure to click OK to save your new shortcut. CAUTION: If you click the red “X” in the upper right corner to close the Word Options dialog, Word will not save your configuration changes!
Now Ctrl O should bypass the Backstage view and go directly to the Open dialog in Windows. And now you know how to create your own custom keyboard shortcuts![2]
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[1] The item immediately below FileOpen, which is labeled FileOpenUsingBackstage, is the command to which the keyboard shortcut Ctrl O is assigned by default in Word 2013 and 2016. If you click that command, you will see Ctrl O listed in the “Current keys” box at left.
[2] The trickiest aspect of customizing keyboard shortcuts in Word is figuring out the command names that Microsoft uses for features and functions. “FileOpen” is pretty straightforward, but for many other commands, intensive brainstorming and/or the patience for seemingly endless scrolling will be required.
Word: What are “points,” anyway?
One of the line spacing options in Word is “Exactly” line spacing, which almost always is configured in points. In my experience, although many people have heard the term “points,” few have a clear understanding of what it means.
In typography, a point (abbreviated “pt”) is a fixed unit of measurement representing the height of the characters. (Some of you might know that the term “pitch” represents the width of the characters.)
There are 72 points in an inch. Twelve (12) points – 1/6 of an inch – is approximately one line. However, text to which Exactly 12 points line spacing has been applied is more compressed vertically (i.e., more “squished”) than single-spaced text created with the same font. Likewise, text to which Exactly 24 points line spacing has been applied is more compressed vertically than double-spaced text created with the same font.[1]
You can test for yourself. Type two short paragraphs that are at least two lines long. Apply single spacing to one of the paragraphs and Exactly 12 spacing to the other. Can you see a difference in terms of the height of the characters and how much white space exists between the lines of the paragraphs? It is even more noticeable if you apply double spacing to one of the paragraphs and Exactly 24 to the other.
When should you use points (i.e., “Exactly” line spacing)? Typically, you’ll use points only in pleadings (litigation documents) where the text is supposed to align with line numbers embedded in the left margin. This is a standard requirement for California pleadings (including documents filed in Federal District Court in California), as well as for pleadings in certain other jurisdictions.
For letters, contracts, estate documents, and the like, simple single and double spacing usually work fine. (However, if you are comfortable working with styles, you might want to create a style that uses single line spacing plus 12 points of After spacing. Or you can change the default line spacing to single spacing plus 12 points of After spacing.[2] The 12 points After spacing adds a line of white space after the text of a paragraph so that you can press Enter once, rather than twice, to start a new paragraph two lines below.)
NOTE: The ideal setup for a California pleading template, in my opinion, involves line numbers that use Exactly 24 point line spacing. When Exactly 24 point line spacing has been applied to the line numbers, you need to use Exactly 24 points – not actual Double Spacing – for any “pleading double spaced” paragraphs (my term) and Exactly 12 points – not actual Single Spacing – for any “pleading single spaced” paragraphs (again, my term).
Don’t assume that Exactly 24 points / Exactly 12 points will always work; the spacing of the pleading line numbers can vary from document to document, especially if you are working with pleadings obtained from different organizations. To determine the correct setting for line spacing (in points) in a specific pleading, you must go into the document’s header, right-click within the pleading line numbers, choose “Paragraph,” and make note of the line spacing – that is, the number of points displayed under Spacing, Line spacing, Exactly. Your “pleading double spacing” must match that figure; your “pleading single spacing” must be half of the figure. (Word usually rounds up to the first decimal place, so if your pleading line numbers are set at Exactly 22.75 points and you configure your “pleading single spacing” to be 11.375 points, Word probably will change that figure to 11.4.)
See my blog post, Aligning text with pleading line numbers, for a fuller discussion of this issue.
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[1] For a more in-depth discussion about points, line spacing, and paragraph spacing, see my blog post “Understanding line and paragraph spacing in Word”. Note that even that post provides a somewhat simplified overview of typographical concepts, which are highly complex.
[2] To do so, open the Paragraph dialog, set the line spacing to Single and the After spacing to 12 pt – making sure that the Before spacing is set to 0 (zero) – and then click the “Set As Default” button at the bottom of the Paragraph dialog. Word will prompt you to make the setting the default only in the current document or in the template that the document is based on. Do think twice before changing the default setting in the underlying template. That might or might not be a desirable outcome.
Clear paragraph and font formatting in Word
Even if you have been using Word for a long time, you might not realize how easy it is to remove paragraph and/or font formatting from text. This post highlights a few different methods for stripping formatting, all of which work in recent versions up through and including Word 2016.
You can clear paragraph and/or font formatting with the mouse or with keyboard shortcuts.
Using the Mouse
The techniques outlined in this section require just a mouse click or two.
The “Clear Formatting” Icon in the Font Group (Home Tab)
Did you ever notice the icon in the top row of the Font group on the Home tab that looks like a little eraser? Most people probably don’t even see it, especially in versions prior to Word 2013, where the icon is so pale that it blends in with the background of the Ribbon. (In the two most recent versions, the eraser has a reddish tint, so it stands out slightly.) In any case, despite its location in the Font group, that icon – labeled “Clear Formatting” in some versions and “Clear All Formatting” in others – actually can be used to remove both font formatting and paragraph formatting from text.
If you have applied a paragraph style, such as a heading style or block quote, you can strip the style by placing your cursor anywhere in the paragraph and then clicking the “Clear Formatting” icon. This method won’t clear any font formatting that you have applied directly to text after you’ve applied a paragraph style. However, if the paragraph style itself incorporates font attributes (e.g., bolding, italics, a size or font face other than the default, etc.), clicking the icon clears those font attributes as well – even if you don’t select / highlight the entire paragraph first.
If you have manually applied a font attribute to some text, you can strip the font formatting by selecting / highlighting the affected text, then clicking the “Clear Formatting” icon. (If you want to remove font formatting from a single word, just place your cursor somewhere within the word and click the icon.)
What’s particularly useful about this tool is that you can use it to remove both the paragraph style and any “direct” font formatting within a paragraph by selecting / highlighting the entire paragraph, then clicking the icon. And yes, you can clear formatting from multiple paragraphs by selecting all of them and then clicking “Clear Formatting.”
By the way, it’s super-easy to add “Clear Formatting” to your Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). Just right-click the icon and choose “Add to Quick Access Toolbar.” The icon will appear at the right side of your QAT.
The “Clear All” Style in Styles Pane
Another item you might never have noticed is the “Clear All” style at the very top of the Styles Pane. (To open the Styles Pane, either click the dialog launcher – the small gray square with a diagonal arrow at the right side of the Styles group on the Home tab – or press the key combination Ctrl Alt Shift S.) This style works exactly the same way as the “Clear Formatting” icon in the Font group on the Home tab.
Incidentally, there’s also a “Clear Formatting” icon on the Quick Styles Gallery drop-down. (To open the gallery, navigate to the right side and click the arrow with a horizontal line above it – the “More” menu. The “Clear Formatting” icon appears near the bottom of the menu.)
Using Keyboard Shortcuts
Ctrl Shift N – Apply the Normal Paragraph Style
You might know that positioning your cursor within a paragraph to which a style has been applied and pressing Ctrl Shift N strips out the style and reverts to your Normal (default) paragraph style. Like the “Clear Formatting” icon, Ctrl Shift N will not strip font formatting unless the font attributes are part of the paragraph style.[1]
Ctrl Q – Clear Manually Applied Paragraph Formatting
The keyboard shortcut Ctrl Q clears direct (manually applied) paragraph formatting. Typically, that means any attributes applied via the Paragraph dialog, such as indents, line spacing, before or after spacing, widow/orphan control, and the like. It also applies to justification applied via the Paragraph dialog, the icons in the Paragraph group on the Home tab, or keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl E (Center) or Ctrl R (Right). And it applies to tab stops applied from either the Ruler or the Tabs dialog (opened by clicking the button at the lower left side of the Paragraph dialog or by double-clicking the Ruler).
Ctrl Q does not remove paragraph styles (heading styles, block quotes, body text styles, etc.) or font formatting.
Ctrl Spacebar – Clear Font Formatting
Ctrl Spacebar is a handy keyboard shortcut to clear direct (manually applied) font formatting. You can remove font formatting from a single word by placing your cursor somewhere within the word and then pressing Ctrl Spacebar, but more often you’ll select / highlight a larger block of text to which you’ve applied font formatting, and then press the key combination to remove that formatting.
Keep in mind that Ctrl Spacebar does not remove font formatting that is incorporated within a paragraph style. So, for example, if you are using heading styles that apply boldface and underlining as part of the paragraph style, you can’t strip out the bolding and underlining with Ctrl Spacebar.[2]
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[1] In my tests, Ctrl Shift N sometimes did remove manually applied font formatting if I selected the entire paragraph first – but sometimes it didn’t do so. Therefore, I would say that this keyboard shortcut is not a dependable way to clear both paragraph and (manually applied) font formatting.
[2] You can, however, use Ctrl B / Ctrl U or the icons for bold and underlining to remove those font attributes, then right-click the icon for the style in the Quick Styles Gallery and choose “Update style to match selection,” which will clear those attributes from the style within the current document. But that’s a topic for a different blog post…