How to Use Format Painter in Word
You've formatted one heading perfectly — font, size, colour, spacing. Now you need five more exactly the same. Instead of repeating every step, use Format Painter to copy the look in one click.
Quick reference
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Copy formatting once | Home → Format Painter (single-click) |
| Copy to lots of places | Double-click Format Painter |
| Stop painting | Esc |
| Keyboard copy / paste formatting | Ctrl + Shift + C / Ctrl + Shift + V |
1. Copy formatting once
1. Click in (or select) the text that already looks right.
2. On the Home tab, click Format Painter — the paintbrush icon.
3. Your cursor becomes a paintbrush. Drag over the text you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, click Format Painter — the paintbrush icon.
3. Your cursor becomes a paintbrush. Drag over the text you want to change.
The formatting is applied and Format Painter switches off.
2. Paint lots of places
Double-click the Format Painter button. It stays on, so you can paint as many bits of text as you like. Press Esc or click the button again when you're done.
3. Use the keyboard
• Ctrl + Shift + C copies the formatting of the selected text.
• Ctrl + Shift + V pastes that formatting onto another selection.
• Ctrl + Shift + V pastes that formatting onto another selection.
The copied formatting stays available until you copy something else, so you can keep pasting it.
4. Character vs paragraph formatting
• Select a few words first and Format Painter copies the font formatting (font, size, colour, bold).
• Click in a paragraph without selecting, and it copies the paragraph formatting too — alignment, line spacing, indents and bullets.
• Click in a paragraph without selecting, and it copies the paragraph formatting too — alignment, line spacing, indents and bullets.
5. It works in other Office apps
The same paintbrush is in Excel (copy cell formatting, borders and number formats), PowerPoint (copy shape and text styles) and Outlook emails.
When to use Styles instead
If you're formatting the same kind of heading all through a long document, use Styles. Change the style once and every heading updates — Format Painter can't do that.
Troubleshooting
Nothing happened. You probably clicked instead of dragging. Drag over the text, or double-click a single word.
It copied the bullet or indent too. You didn't select any text first, so it copied the paragraph formatting. Select the characters first.
Wrapping up
Click the good text, click the paintbrush, drag over the rest. Double-click the paintbrush when you need it more than once.
