This book formatter recently opened a manuscript to do a simple round of edits and got smacked in the face with hundreds of content controls. Fields that wouldn’t behave. Text boxes that felt... caged. Dropdowns. Placeholders. Everything wrapped in mysterious grey borders like a haunted digital form.
This was a children’s book. Not a legal intake form. So why was Word treating it like one?
Wait, What Are Content Controls?
If you’ve ever clicked into an MS Word doc and seen a field that says something like “Click here to enter text,” congratulations, you’ve met a content control.
They're interactive placeholders created using MS Word’s developer tools. Their job? To structure documents, protect formatting, and streamline data entry. They can include: text boxes (locked or editable), drop-down lists, date pickers, check boxes, and even hidden XML bindings to external data. In professional forms or legal templates, they make total sense. In a 32-page picture book about a squirrel chasing stars, not so much.
Why Were They in My Children's Book?
In my case, the manuscript had been written and edited using Zoom AI, which quietly wrapped nearly every paragraph and line of dialogue in content controls. Many AI tools, including Zoom’s Smart Companion, use content controls to tag, track, or preserve AI-generated text during collaborative editing or export. These controls may be helpful for versioning or integration with other systems, but when exported into a standard Word document, they turn into invisible fences that interfere with basic editing. What looked like a simple story on the surface was actually a tightly structured AI-generated file under the hood—one that needed a little cleaning before it was ready for traditional editing or design.
Even outside of AI tools like Zoom, content controls can sneak into MS Word documents for a variety of reasons. They’re commonly used in templates, especially ones designed for legal, medical, or business documents where certain fields need to be filled out but not changed. If someone starts writing in a template without realizing it's structured this way, their entire document can end up wrapped in controls: one for every paragraph, heading, or dialogue tag. Content controls are also used when documents are connected to external data sources or XML bindings, or when someone uses “Restrict Editing” mode to protect certain sections. In all of these cases, they’re meant to be helpful, but for creative writers and editors, they can quickly become a formatting nightmare.
The Problem with Too Many Content Controls
If you’re an editor or illustrator, excessive content controls can be a nightmare:
- Text becomes harder to edit or style.
- Paste and format functions act glitchy.
- Track Changes behaves erratically.
- Formatting and layout don’t behave normally.
- MS Word slows to a crawl.
You’re basically editing a document that’s trying very hard not to be edited.
How to Remove Content Controls (All at Once)
If you’ve got a doc crawling with them, here’s how to take back control:
Option 1: Manually (ugh)
Right-click each control → select Remove Content Control. Repeat 200 times.
Option 2: Select All (Easier)
Select all text in your document then right-click → select Remove Content Control. One time will delete them all.
Option 3: Use a Macro (fast & easy)
- Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor.
- In the left pane, double-click ThisDocument under your file name.
- Paste this code:
vbaCopySub RemoveAllContentControls()
Dim cc As ContentControl
For Each cc In ActiveDocument.ContentControls
cc.Range.Text = cc.Range.Text ' keeps the content
cc.Delete
Next cc
End Sub
- Press F5 to run the macro.
Poof. All the content controls disappear — but the text stays.
When Are Content Controls Useful?
To be fair, they’re incredibly helpful in:
- Government or legal forms
- Medical intake docs
- Business templates that need repeatable fields
- Structured eBook templates for bulk publishing
But in most creative writing projects, especially those involving illustration or custom design, they just get in the way.
If you open a MS Word doc and find yourself in a digital straitjacket, content controls are probably to blame. Now you know what they are, why they show up, and how to get rid of them. Take back your manuscript. Free the text. Ditch the unnecessary controls.
Need More Help with MS Word Formatting Clean Up?
If you come across something you don't know how to fix, go to Services > Ask a Book Formatting Question in the menu and let me know how I can help. Or purchase Wendy Spurlin's Polished Pages: A Comprehensive Checklist for Cleaning Up Your MS Word Manuscript for additional help cleaning up your manuscript. It's available on Amazon and in many other stores. Whether you're submitting to an agent, preparing for self-publishing, or handing off your work to a book formatter, a clean, professional manuscript makes all the difference. Polished Pages walks you through a step-by-step checklist to tidy up your MS Word document—removing hidden formatting, fixing punctuation inconsistencies, standardizing styles, and resolving the quirks that build up over years of writing.