How to Use the Format Painter in Microsoft Word

When formatting a long document, you might spend several minutes perfectly adjusting a heading. You change the font, increase the size, make it bold, change the text color, and add a specific line spacing. When it comes time to format the next heading, doing all of those steps again manually is incredibly tedious.

Microsoft Word includes a powerful tool called the Format Painter, which allows you to copy the visual styling of a piece of text and instantly “paint” it onto another paragraph, saving you significant time and ensuring absolute consistency.

In this guide, you will learn how to use the Format Painter in Microsoft Word.

How to Copy Formatting Once

If you only need to apply a style to one other specific word or paragraph, a single click is all you need.

1. Highlight the text that has the formatting you want to copy (the “good” text).
2. Go to the Home tab on the top ribbon.
3. In the Clipboard group (on the far left), click the Format Painter icon (it looks like a small paintbrush).
4. Your mouse cursor will now change to include a little paintbrush icon next to it.
5. Click and drag to highlight the text you want to change.
6. When you release the mouse button, the new text will instantly match the style of your original text, and the Format Painter will automatically turn off.

How to Apply Formatting Multiple Times

If you have five different headings scattered throughout your document that all need the exact same styling, painting them one by one would be frustrating. You can actually lock the Format Painter on.

1. Highlight the text with the formatting you want to copy.
2. Go to the Home tab.
3. Instead of clicking the Format Painter icon once, Double-Click it rapidly.
4. The Format Painter is now locked. You can now highlight your second heading to format it, scroll down, highlight your third heading, scroll down, and highlight your fourth.
5. When you are completely finished applying the style, press the Esc key on your keyboard (or click the Format Painter icon again) to turn the tool off and return to your normal cursor.