Excel - Format Painter

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What is Format Painter?

Format Painter is an interactive option that allows you to copy the formatting of a specific cell and paste it into the desired cells location. This powerful option allows you to quickly change the lengthy dataset's styling, as manually changing the formatting of the independent cells consumes a lot of users' time.

Location of Format Painter in the Ribbon

It is presented in the Clipboard group under the Home tab. The paintbrush icon represents the "Format painter" as shown below −

Use of Format Painter

Various steps to utilize the Format Painter are given below −

• You may click on the specific cell already containing the interactive formatting you are willing to employ in selected cell ranges.
• Switch to the Home tab and choose the Format button icon from the Clipboard group.
• Furthermore, once the paintbrush cursor is activated, you may impose it with the specific cell ranges in the worksheet to alter its default formatting of the selected ranges of cells.

Using Format Painter to Copy formatting to an Entire Range

The following steps are given to copy formatting −

Step 1 − First, Daniel wants to change the default formatting of the cell range D3:D5. He created the sample worksheet shown below. The cell reference B3 already contains the interactive formatting. Choose the B3 cell.

Step 2 − Now, navigate to the Home tab and select the Format Painter from the Clipboard group.

Step 3 − After that, the Format Painter brush is activated. Select the range D2:D4 to apply the same formatting.

As you can observe in the screenshot, the formatting of the B3 cell has been copied and applied to the specific cell ranges D2:D4.

Using Shortcut for Format Painter

There is no straightforward shortcut for the Format Painter option.

Keyword Shortcut for Copying the Cell Formatting

First, you can use "Ctrl + C to copy the formatting of the specific cell.

Keyword Shortcut for Pasting the Formatting to Another Cell

Select the destination cell ranges. Furthermore, you can select "Alt + E -> "S-> "T to open the Paste Special dialog box. You can click on the OK button.

Once you click the OK button, the formatting of the cells' destination ranges will change.

Example 1 − Open the new worksheet in Excel and enter the sample numeric value in the B column. Select cell B3 and press the "Ctrl + C keys, then select the range E3:E5.

Moreover, you can press the "Alt+E keys. After that, choose the S key and press the T key from the keyboard. The Paste Special dialog box will automatically open, and you can click the OK button.

As you can notice in the screenshot, the selected cell ranges formatting has been changed similarly to the B3 cell through the keywords shortcut.

Using Excel's Format Painter to Copy Formatting to Multiple Cells

You can double-click on the "Format Painter to copy the selected cell formatting and apply it to multiple cells.

Lets understand through this interesting example

Select the B4 cell and double-click on the "Format Painter option.

After that, drop this active paintbrush cursor to the desired cells like B9, D9, and F9 cells to apply the same B4 cell formatting.

Press the "ESC key to hide the format painter option that retains the cursor's original property.

Using Paste Special to Copy Formatting

First, copy the formatting and use the "ctrl + c shortcut. Then, paste the formatting using the Paste Special option inside the Clipboard group.

For Example − Select the B4 cell and press the "ctrl+ c" keys as given below −

Furthermore, you can select the range B9:B11, move to the Home tab, click on the Paste tile, and select the "Paste Special" option.

The "Paste Special" dialog box appears. In it, you may click on the Formats option under the Paste label and, finally, click on the OK button.

Therefore, the formatting of the targeted cell ranges has been altered.

Despite the Paste Special option, you can use the Formatting(R) option inside the Paste tile to format the targeted fields.