The Format Painter is an incredibly useful tool found in Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It allows you to easily copy formatting from one place and apply it somewhere else with just a few clicks.

Using Format Painter can save you a huge amount of time compared to manually applying formatting over and over again. Whether you need to make hundreds of cells in an Excel spreadsheet the same format or want all your Word document headings to have identical styling, Format Painter has got you covered!

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to use Format Painter in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

How to Use Format Painter in Word

Here are the steps to use Format Painter in Microsoft Word:

Select the text that has the formatting you want to copy. This can be a word, sentence, paragraph or even an entire text box or shape.
Click the Format Painter icon in the Clipboard section of the Home tab. The mouse cursor will change to a paintbrush icon. Format Painter Icon Location

Select the text you want to apply the copied formatting to. The formatting from the original selection will be applied.
To apply the same formatting multiple times, double click the Format Painter icon instead of single clicking it. The paintbrush cursor will remain active so you can keep selecting additional text.
To stop applying the copied formatting, simply press the Esc key or click the Format Painter icon again.

Here are some extra Format Painter tips for Word:

To copy text formatting only, select just a portion of the text rather than the whole paragraph. To copy paragraph formatting as well, select the entire paragraph.
You can use Format Painter on nearly anything that can be formatted – text, table cells, shapes, images, SmartArt, charts, etc.

For quick access, add Format Painter to the Quick Access Toolbar.

How to Use Format Painter in Excel

The steps to use Format Painter in Excel are very similar:

Select the cell(s) that contain the formatting you want to duplicate.

Click the Format Painter button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab.
Select the cells you want to apply the formatting to. The formatting will be copied there.
Double click the Format Painter instead of single clicking if you want to apply the same formatting to multiple areas.

Press Esc when finished to deactivate Format Painter.

Tips for Excel:

Format Painter copies nearly all formatting including number formats, font styling, cell fill colors, borders, alignment, etc.

To copy formatting between different Excel workbooks, have both workbooks open then use Format Painter between them.
Excel doesn’t support the keyboard shortcuts for Format Painter that Word and PowerPoint do.

How to Use Format Painter in PowerPoint

Format Painter works the same easy way in PowerPoint:

Select the text box, shape, image, chart or other object that has the desired formatting.
Click the Format Painter button on the Home tab. The mouse pointer becomes a paintbrush.
Click the object you want to apply the copied formatting to. The formatting is applied instantly.

Double click the Format Painter instead of single clicking if you want to reuse the formatting multiple times.
Press Esc when finished applying the formatting.

PowerPoint-specific Format Painter tips:

Use it to quickly make multiple slides have identical formatting.
It works great for copying image styles and effects to other images.
You can use the keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl + Shift + C to copy and Ctrl + Shift + V to paste formatting.

So there you have it – an easy way to use Format Painter to copy and duplicate formatting in Word, Excel and PowerPoint! This simple tool will save you tons of time compared to manually applying formatting over and over.

Conclusion

Format Painter allows instant formatting duplication across Microsoft Office apps.
It can save hours of time compared to manually applying the same formatting repeatedly.