How to use format painter in Excel 2010

The Format Painter tool in Microsoft Excel is a convenient feature that permits us to copy and paste formatting into other cells. When you have a specific formatting style applied to a cell, you can use the Format Painter to quickly apply the same formatting to other cells without manually adjusting each one. This helps to maintain consistency in your spreadsheet design. Instead of manually configuring each cell’s formatting options, the Format Painter allows you to copy and apply formatting in just a couple of clicks. 

While working in Microsoft Excel, we frequently use the format painter to create a uniform design for our document. We can use format painter by clicking it on the Excel ribbon, or by using the shortcut key for format painter.  

Method 1 – Using format painter through the ribbon 

In all versions of Microsoft Excel, the format painter is located in the “Clipboard” group of the “Home” tab. We can use format painter by clicking it and then applying it to the cell where we want to paste the formatting. Consider the following dataset that contains the examination results of a class. The teacher wants to maintain uniform formatting for the mark sheets of all students. In this particular dataset, separate sheets are created for the mark sheets of each student. Suppose the mark sheet that has been already formatted looks like this: 

Step 1 – Select the cell or cell range that has already been formatted 

• Go to the data range that has already been formatted. 
• Press and drag the pointer over the data range to select it. 

Step 2 – Click on Format Painter 

• Go to the “Clipboard” group of the “Home” tab. 
• Click on “Format Painter” once if you want to use it one time only. 
• If we want to paste the formatting to multiple places, then double-click “Format Painter”. 
• In this case, we have to paste the formatting to multiple mark sheets so we’ll double-click the “Format Painter” option. 

Step 3 – Paste the formatting to the desired location 

• Go to the location where you want to paste the formatting. 
• Just click the cell or cell range. 
• The formatting will be pasted to the cell range. 

Method 2 – Using Short-cut key 

There is no specific shortcut key for format painter in Excel, but we can use Alt+H and some more keys to use the Excel ribbon through our keyboard. Let’s use the Format Painter through short-cut keys in the same dataset that is used in the above example: 

Step 1 – Select the cell or cell range that has already been formatted 

• Go to the data range that has already been formatted. 
• Press and drag the pointer over the data range to select it. 

Step 2 – Use the short-cut keys to use Format Painter 

• After selecting the cell range, press Alt+H to use the ribbon through the keyboard. 
• Press F and then P to choose the Format Painter.  
• This will also copy the formatting of the selected cells. 

Step 3 – Paste the formatting to the desired location 

• Go to the location where you want the paste the formatting. 

• Just click the cell or cell range. 
• The formatting will be pasted to the cell range.