Reuse Your Custom Formatting

You’ve spent a lot of time getting things to look just right, and there’s no need to repeat the process for a similar worksheet. There are two ways you can take advantage of formatting you’ve already done.

Format Painter button

  Copy the formatting from one cell or range to another by using the Format Painter button. This button enables you to copy any number of cell formats at once. Select a range of cells with different formats, and then click the Format Painter button. The Format Painter applies identical formats to the next range you select without disturbing the contents of the cells.

  Define the formatting of a cell as a style. Styles enable you to store all the formatting attributes of a cell by giving them a name, which you can then apply to other cells. Select the cell, click Style (Format menu), and then give the style a name. To apply a style, select a cell, click Style, and then select the style name.

Reuse custom cell styles   Save yourself from doing all this formatting again. You can use your custom styles in other workbooks. In the Style dialog box, click the Merge button to select another workbook and copy its style definitions to the current workbook. Repeat format copying   If you double-click the Format Painter button, it remains active so that you can paste the copied formats as many times as you want. Press ESC when you’re finished.

Office Assistant button

Want to know more?   Look up Getting Results - Worksheet in Help.