Try the Format Painter!

Have you ever wished there was a quick way to have the same formatting in multiple locations in a Word document, a PowerPoint presentation, or in multiple cells in Excel without having to select all those options again? One of my favorite tools is the Format Painter - that little paint brush you see included with the Clipboard tools on the Home tab of the ribbon. It’s such a useful item it even appears on the mini toolbar - that’s the toolbar that shows up when you right click a selection.

For example, you have formatted a paragraph heading with bold, italics, 12 point Comic Sans, in a lovely custom shade of blue, and maybe even added a shadow! Now you are adding another paragraph heading, and would like to re-use all those attributes. It’s easy with the format painter!

For example, you have formatted a paragraph heading with bold, italics, 12 point Comic Sans, in a lovely custom shade of blue, and maybe even added a shadow! Now you are adding another paragraph heading, and would like to re-use all those attributes. It’s easy with the format painter!

This is the formatting I want to use elsewhere: 

          1.  Select an example of text that has the attributes you would like to use elsewhere: to copy just   text formatting, select some text; to copy paragraph formatting (line spacing, indents, etc.),  select the entire paragraph; in Excel select a cell.

                                                                             

          2.  Click the Format Painter and your mouse will now have a paintbrush attached. If you need to copy the format to multiple locations in the document, double click the paintbrush tool. It will stay active until you click it back off or use the Escape key (ESC) on your keyboard.

Home tab of the ribbon:

 Right click and view the mini toolbar:

         3.  Click and drag over as much text as you need to format. The formatting will be copied!

Formatting copied to other text in the document

By: Irene Heckert, Microsoft Office Expert