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About this lesson
Quickly copy and paste “formats” with this amazing button.
Lesson versions
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Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Format Painter .docx66.9 KB Format Painter - Solution.docx
67 KB
Quick reference
Format Painter
Use the Format Painter button to quickly copy and paste “formats”.
When to use
Any time you want to quickly duplicate formatting, the Format Painter button is the best option.
Instructions
- Click the line of text that you want to copy Formatting from.
- Click the Format Painter button on the Home ribbon, Clipboard group.
- Click and drag over the line of text that you want to apply the Formatting to.
Hints & tips:
- The format only applies to the SELECTED text. Make sure you have told the computer what you want it to do by clicking, dragging, and selecting the text.
- Single click the Format Painter to use it one time only.
- Double click the Format Painter to use it as many times as you like until you are finished.
- Press ESC on keyboard to turn off the Format Painter when you are done; or click the button to turn it off.
- 00:04 In this lesson, we're gonna review the Format Painter.
- 00:07 I touched on it briefly in the previous lesson,
- 00:09 but we're gonna take it a step further this time.
- 00:11 Let's go ahead and locate it.
- 00:13 It's right up here on the Home ribbon.
- 00:15 When you float your mouse on top of it,
- 00:16 you can read all the instructions on how to use it on the tool tip.
- 00:20 Please notice the title.
- 00:21 It also says Ctrl+Shift+C will copy the format, Ctrl+Shift+V,
- 00:25 as in Victor, will paste the format.
- 00:27 And it's your personal preference.
- 00:28 You can hit the button, or you can use a keyboard command.
- 00:31 You'll choose as you get better using it.
- 00:34 And let's go ahead and start using this thing.
- 00:36 First of all, I need to select the format that I really like.
- 00:40 And I like this format.
- 00:42 And when I select and let go, notice my mini bar shows up, and
- 00:45 it also has a Format Painter right there where I'm working, and I love that.
- 00:49 And the Format Painter is honestly one of the best buttons Microsoft has ever
- 00:53 given us.
- 00:54 Now, if I click it once, I get to use it once.
- 00:56 So I'm gonna click it once.
- 00:58 When I move my mouse down, there's a little paintbrush.
- 01:00 And I can wipe it left to right or right to left,
- 01:02 it doesn't care, just as long as you click and drag where you want it to apply.
- 01:06 And it finishes, and I'm done using it.
- 01:09 But there's another little trick here, and that is a double-click.
- 01:11 Again, I'm going to select the format I like.
- 01:14 This time, I'm going to double-click the Format Painter.
- 01:17 Now when I float my mouse and click and drag with it, it applies it right there.
- 01:20 And I can take it up here and apply it right here as well.
- 01:23 Do you see what's happening?
- 01:24 Now, if I want to get rid of it, I have to hit Escape, so I'm gonna hit Escape.
- 01:28 All right, now I'm going to select Topic #3.
- 01:32 Now notice I'm not gonna click and drag Topic #3.
- 01:35 I'm gonna float my mouse into the margin, click once, and
- 01:37 it selects the entire line.
- 01:39 Plus it gives me my mini bar.
- 01:41 So I'm gonna select the Format Painter just once.
- 01:44 I'm gonna come out here and click and drag over the top of it.
- 01:47 There we go.
- 01:48 Now, what we're gonna do is apply Topic #1 format to these two lines, and
- 01:53 then Topic #2 format to these two other lines, right?
- 01:56 So I have the instructions sort of written into the exercise.
- 02:00 So Topic #1 format, click off to the left into the margin,
- 02:03 double-click the Format Painter, click, click.
- 02:06 And go ahead and repair the line underneath of it by clicking it once.
- 02:09 Now, notice you don't see the little paintbrush attached to my arrow.
- 02:12 But when I move into the text, now you see it.
- 02:15 So trust me, it's on.
- 02:17 It's just when I've got my arrow out into the margin, you don't see that it's on.
- 02:22 So you just kinda have to trust that, yeah, it's on.
- 02:25 Now, it's always a good idea to turn this off when you're done using it.
- 02:28 'Cause you will forget that thing is on, and you'll format something,
- 02:32 and it will be a little bit of a catastrophe.
- 02:34 But to turn it off, we can come back up here and unclick it.
- 02:38 Or we can just hit Escape on our keyboard.
- 02:39 I'm gonna tap by Escape key and watch, that paintbrush will vanish, there it is.
- 02:43 It's currently off, and the button turned itself off as well.
- 02:46 So all right, let's go do the next one, Topic #2.
- 02:49 And I'm going to double-click the Format Painter button, and
- 02:52 I'm gonna come down here and apply it to this line.
- 02:54 It says Apply Topic #2, apply Topic #2.
- 02:57 And now I've gotta turn it off, hit the Escape key.
- 03:00 And I'm going to go right back up here to Topic #3.
- 03:02 This time I'll just click it once, 'cause I only need to apply it once.
- 03:05 And come down here and apply Topic #3.
- 03:08 And there you go, it turned itself off 'cause I only clicked it once.
- 03:11 So the best thing about the Format Painter, if you're gonna use it once,
- 03:14 just click it once.
- 03:16 If you're going to use it a few times, double-click it, and
- 03:19 then use it until you're done.
- 03:20 But for goodness sakes, remember to turn it off with the Escape key or
- 03:24 click on the button.
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