advanced formatting features

automatic format copying

Excel sometimes copies formatting for you automatically. To try this out, perform the following experiment:

1. In cell A1, type Spring
2. In cell B1, type Fall
3. Select A1:B1, and format them as Arial 12-point bold.
4. Insert a new column between the two columns, and in the new B1, type Summer Notice that Excel formats it the same as the cells that it's between.
5. Click on Fall (in cell C1), and press Tab. The cursor moves to D1.
6. Type Winter Notice that Excel formats it the same as the other cells.

format painter

If Excel doesn't automatically copy the formatting the way you want, you can manually copy it with Format Painter.

1. Click the cell containing the formatting to be copied.
2. Click the Format Painter button on the toolbar, as shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1: Click the Format Painter button to copy formatting.

3. Click the cell to receive the formatting, or drag across multiple cells to format them.

Format Painter then turns itself off. If you want it to stay on, double-click rather than click as in Step 2; it remains on and you can copy the formatting to multiple selections until you turn off Format Painter manually by pressing Esc.

To try out Format Painter:

1. Type some text in cell B6, and then type some more text in D10.
2. Format the text in B6 with a border, some shading, and a different-color font.
3. Click on B6, and then click the Format Painter button.
4. Click on D10. The formatting is copied.

clear formats

One way to put a cell's formatting back to normal is to use Format Painter to copy the formatting from a cell that is not formatted to the cell that is.

Another way, perhaps a better way, is to clear formatting like this:

1. Select the cell that you want to clear.
2. Choose Edit > Clear > Formats.

Give this a try on some of the cells you've formatted in the preceding sets of steps.