When you are formatting a massive corporate report or an essay, you often create a specific style for your headings—perhaps making them size 18, bold, underlined, and dark blue. Instead of manually highlighting every single subsequent heading in your document and repeating those four formatting steps one by one, you can use the Google Docs Format Painter tool to instantly copy and paste the style in a single click.
How to Use the Format Painter
The Format Painter looks like a small paint roller icon located on the far left side of your main toolbar, right next to the Print button.
- Highlight the text that has the perfect formatting you want to copy (e.g., your beautiful blue, bold heading).
- Click the Paint Roller icon once. The icon will turn dark, indicating it is currently “loaded” with your style.
- Scroll down your document and highlight the plain text you want to change.
- The second you let go of your mouse button, the plain text will instantly transform to perfectly match the font, size, colour, and style of your original text.
The Double-Click Trick
If you only click the paint roller once, the tool turns off immediately after you paint the first piece of text. If you have ten different headings scattered throughout a 20-page document, this is tedious. Instead, highlight your perfect text and double-click the Paint Roller icon. The tool will now stay permanently locked in the “on” position, allowing you to scroll through your document and paint dozens of different paragraphs continuously. When you are completely finished, simply click the paint roller icon one last time or press the Escape key to turn it off.