Over the last couple of weeks, I have taught a wide range of Excel topics, from Formatting, Filtering, and Sorting to Conditional Formatting, Basic Calculations, AutoSum, VLOOKUPs, IF statements, AND/OR logic, COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, Name Manager, Sparklines, Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts, Recording Macros, Power Query, and more!
At the end of the training sessions, I often ask participants what they found most useful and one feature that often takes the spotlight is Format Painter! It is often accompanied by “it’s life changing”. 
And the real game-changer? The double-click trick!
So, for those of you that don’t know, I will explain.
If you want to copy the format of a cell, row, or column in Excel, (for example blue font, bold, in dollars with no decimal places) all you need to do is:
- Select the cell, row, or column in Excel that you like the format of
- Then click on the paintbrush which is top left of your Home ribbon. You cursor will then change to a paintbrush
- The select the cell, row, or column in Excel, which you want to have the same format, and magic, the format will be copied over. Note only the format copies over, and not the contents, i.e. not the formula or numbers or words etc.
However, to take the excitement to the next level, if you Double click the paintbrush, instead of single click the paintbrush, you can copy the format multiple times! So simple, but so brilliant if you didn’t know!
Don’t forget to then click the paintbrush again to stop copying the format, or press Escape (ESC) on your keyboard.
If interested in organising some Excel training, please get in touch here.
