You can apply formatting or conditional formatting rules you've used on one set of cells to another separate set of cells using the Paint Format tool, where "paint" is used figuratively to describe copying the formatting rules. The types of formats that you can paint are style, fonts, number formats and conditional formatting.
Note: If the range of cells you're painting the formatting across is larger than the source area, the formatting will tile across the target area.
To paint formatting from one area across another area, follow these steps:
- Select the range of cells that contain the formatting and/or conditional formatting rules you'd like to paint across another range of cells.
- Click the Paintbrush toolbar icon.
- Doing this will enter the spreadsheet into painter mode until you complete copying the cell formats or click the Paintbrush toolbar icon a second time.
- Your selection will have an orange border around it.
- Select the range of cells you'd like the formatting to be copied across. The cell formatting will then be applied to the range of cells you've selected.
- This action will override any existing formatting set for the selected cells.
- The range of cells you want the formatting to be copied across doesn't need to be adjacent to your original selection of cells.
