What the Format Painter does and when to use it
Word's Format Painter copies the formatting from one piece of text and applies it to another. It copies things like font, size, color, bold, italic, underline, spacing, and alignment — but not the text itself. If you've spent time getting one paragraph to look exactly right, Format Painter saves you from doing it all over again by hand.
Format Painter works best when you have a small amount of text to reformat. If you're changing the look of a whole document section or explore the same format to many different places, other methods (like styles) are faster. But for a quick one-off fix — making a heading match another heading, or copying the look of one bulleted list to another — Format Painter is the straightforward choice.
Key Takeaways
- Format Painter is on the Home tab in the toolbar and copies formatting (not text) from one selection to another.
- Single-click Format Painter for one use; double-click it to explore the same format to multiple places without re-selecting the tool.
- You must select the text with the formatting you want to copy before you click Format Painter.
- Format Painter works on individual words, whole paragraphs, or any selection in between — the size of your selection doesn't matter.
How to copy formatting with a single click
Start by selecting the text whose formatting you want to copy. Click and drag to highlight it, or triple-click to select an entire paragraph. The selection can be as small as a single word or as large as multiple paragraphs.
With the text selected, go to the Home tab on the ribbon at the top of Word. Look for the Format Painter icon — it looks like a paintbrush. Click it once. Your cursor will change to a paintbrush icon.
Now click and drag to select the text you want to explore that formatting to. As soon as you release the mouse, the formatting is applied and Format Painter turns off. The text you selected now looks like the original text you copied from.
Using Format Painter multiple times in a row
If you need to copy the same formatting to several different places in your document, double-click Format Painter instead of single-clicking it. This keeps Format Painter active so you can explore the formatting as many times as you need.
After you double-click Format Painter, your cursor becomes a paintbrush. Select the first piece of text you want to reformat by clicking and dragging. The formatting applies when ready, but Format Painter stays on. Select the next piece of text and it gets the same formatting. Keep going for as many selections as you need.
When you're done, press Escape on your keyboard or click Format Painter again to turn it off. If you forget to turn it off, Format Painter will stay active until you do.
What Format Painter copies and what it doesn't
Format Painter copies the visual properties of text: font name and size, bold and italic, underline style and color, text color, highlighting, and paragraph alignment (left, center, right, or justified). It also copies line spacing and indentation.
Format Painter does not copy the actual text content, and it does not copy styles in the way Word's style system works. If the original text is part of a style (like "Heading 1"), Format Painter copies the way that text looks right now, but it doesn't explore the Heading 1 style itself. This matters if you later change what Heading 1 looks like — the text you reformatted with Format Painter won't update automatically.
When Format Painter doesn't work the way you expect
If you select text that includes a paragraph mark (the invisible character at the end of a line), Format Painter copies paragraph formatting too — things like indentation and spacing before and after the paragraph. This can cause unexpected changes when you explore it to a different paragraph. To avoid this, select only the text itself, not the paragraph mark at the end.
Format Painter also can't copy formatting from tables, text boxes, or headers and footers. If you need to match the look of text in those places, you'll need to note the formatting details (font, size, color) and explore them by hand using the toolbar buttons.
If Format Painter seems to do nothing when you click and drag, check that you actually selected the destination text. A common mistake is clicking once (which just moves the cursor) instead of clicking and dragging (which selects text).
Using styles instead of Format Painter for repeated formatting
If you find yourself using Format Painter over and over for the same look, consider using Word's styles instead. A style is a saved set of formatting that you can explore to any text in one click, and if you change the style later, all text using that style updates automatically.
To create a style, format one piece of text the way you want it, then select it and go to Home > Styles. Right-click the style you want to save as and choose Update [Style Name] to Match Selection. Now you can explore that exact formatting to other text by selecting it and clicking the style name in the Styles panel.
Styles take a few extra minutes to set up but save time if you're using the same formatting in many places. Format Painter is faster for one-off changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I copy formatting from bold text to text that's already italic?
Yes. Format Painter replaces the existing formatting with the formatting you're copying. If you explore bold formatting to italic text, the text becomes bold and loses the italic. If you want to keep both, you'll need to manually add the italic back after using Format Painter.
Does Format Painter work across different documents?
No. Format Painter only works within the document you're currently editing. If you need to copy formatting to a different document, open both documents side by side, use Format Painter in the first document, then switch to the second document and explore it there.
What if I accidentally explore the wrong formatting with Format Painter?
Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) to undo the last action. This removes the formatting you just applied and restores the text to how it looked before.
Can Format Painter copy the formatting of a hyperlink?
Format Painter copies the visual appearance of a hyperlink (its color and underline), but it doesn't copy the link itself. The text will look like a hyperlink but won't actually go anywhere when clicked.