Format Painter – Video Tip

I demonstrated today's tip in Microsoft Word, but it also works in all the Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook, etc), WordPerfect, OpenOffice and others.

The tip is simple in its performance and gargantuan in its function. Format Painter copies formatting from one location and applies it to another. In the video example below, I formatted one line of text to have a particular look and it took 31 clicks of the mouse. Using Format Painter, I copied the look of that text to some plain text in just three steps. This technique comes in handy when formatting longer documents, spreadsheets, newsletters, etc and can save you a boat-load of time. Here's how to do it:

1. Highlight the text that has already been formatted to your liking using your mouse.
2. Click the Format Painter button.
3. Highlight the text you want to apply the formatting too.

That's it!

Tip Within a Tip:

If you DOUBLE-CLICK the Format Painter button, you can apply the formatting changes to different parts of your document over and over until you unclick the Format Painter button.

Related articles:

1. Easily create labels with Microsoft Word
2. Drag and Drop
3. When Should You Use the RIGHT Mouse Button?
4. Print your Word document on one page
5. Create a Watermark in Microsoft Word

2 Responses to “Format Painter – Video Tip”

1. Anonymous says:

   April 6, 2007 at 9:20 am

   HOLY COW! It is not uncommon for me to have 50 to 70 page reports, and I’m often switching the text. That Format Painter is going to save me literally hours over the year ~ Thank You! Lisa Roberts

   Reply
2. Anonymous says:

   March 31, 2007 at 4:06 am

   THANKS Rick!!!

   I have been using MS Word on Mac and PC since 1991 and I never knew about “Format Painter”. The button wasn’t on my bar, but I found it in the unused portion of the tool bar.

   I knew how to do it in Quark, but until today, not in word.

   Thanks again!

   One more thing. How do I turn off a video tip once I have listened to it?

   I listened about six times as I was writing this comment.

   Reply