Does this remove author-applied bold for species names or key terms?

Yes. All inline bold and italic is removed. If your style guide requires preserving certain inline formatting conventions, those will need to be reapplied by the production editor after cleaning.

Does it handle manuscripts with complex tables, like data tables or results tables?

Text inside table cells is processed and reset to Normal style. Table structure — rows and columns — is preserved.

Can we batch-process a full issue's worth of accepted manuscripts?

Yes. Upload multiple DOCX files in one session. Each manuscript produces its own cleaned output file.

Is this useful for DOCX-to-JATS XML workflows?

Yes. DOCX-to-XML conversion tools map Word styles to XML tags; unexpected or non-standard author styles produce mapping errors. A formatting-clean DOCX with only Normal style paragraphs reduces these errors significantly.

Remove Author Word Styles from Manuscript Submissions Before Typesetting

Authors submit manuscripts in their institution's Word template, their supervisor's custom style set, or whatever formatting they assumed the journal wanted. Before your production team can apply the journal's typesetting styles or import into InDesign, those author styles need to come out cleanly. Deliteful strips every paragraph and inline style from submitted DOCX files in one pass.

Create free account

Journal production editors and academic publishers processing high submission volumes — hundreds of manuscripts per issue cycle — spend significant effort on style normalization before typesetting begins. Author instructions rarely eliminate the problem: even when authors follow a journal template, they frequently override styles locally, paste from other documents, or use template versions that don't match the current production spec. Each of these variations requires manual cleanup before the manuscript can enter the typesetting pipeline cleanly.

Deliteful resets all paragraph styles to Normal and removes inline formatting throughout the uploaded DOCX, producing a style-neutral file that your typesetting team or InDesign import workflow can process without fighting author styles. Text, tables, and document structure are preserved; images are untouched. For publishers using DOCX-to-XML workflows (JATS, NLM DTD), starting from a formatting-clean DOCX reduces the tagging errors introduced by unexpected style mappings.

How it works

1
Create a free account
Sign in with Google — 3 clicks, no card required.
2
Upload the author manuscript DOCX
Drop the submission file onto the Remove Formatting tool.
3
Strip author styles
Deliteful resets all paragraph and inline formatting to Normal throughout the document.
4
Hand to typesetting
Pass the clean DOCX to your production team or import into your typesetting or XML workflow.

Frequently asked questions

Does this remove author-applied bold for species names or key terms?: Yes. All inline bold and italic is removed. If your style guide requires preserving certain inline formatting conventions, those will need to be reapplied by the production editor after cleaning.
Does it handle manuscripts with complex tables, like data tables or results tables?: Text inside table cells is processed and reset to Normal style. Table structure — rows and columns — is preserved.
Can we batch-process a full issue's worth of accepted manuscripts?: Yes. Upload multiple DOCX files in one session. Each manuscript produces its own cleaned output file.
Is this useful for DOCX-to-JATS XML workflows?: Yes. DOCX-to-XML conversion tools map Word styles to XML tags; unexpected or non-standard author styles produce mapping errors. A formatting-clean DOCX with only Normal style paragraphs reduces these errors significantly.

Create your free Deliteful account with Google and strip author Word styles from your next manuscript batch before typesetting begins.