If the styles have not been changed (all the formatting has been applied as
direct formatting), Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Spacebar will do it. From your
description, though, it sounds as if custom styles are involved. You can
delete these styles, but (unless you have Word 2007, which I believe allows
you to choose which style you want substituted), the paragraphs will revert
to Normal. If you're going to get Normal, anyway, you might as well Ctrl+A,
Ctrl+Shift+N.

Wwhat I prefer to do, regardless of what sort of dog's breakfast I'm dealing
with, is strip out *all* formatting by applying the style I will be using
most (usually Body Text or Body Text First Indent), then pasting the text
into a new document based on *my* template.