Copying Formatting in Word using the Format Painter

One of our favorite tools (besides PDF to Word, of course) is the Format Painter in Microsoft Word. Although this feature is fairly well known, it deserves mentioning again due to just how much time you can save with it.

Basically, you use the tool to copy all of the formatting from one selection of text to another. This is usually much faster than going through several menus to apply different formatting options to a section of text. Even when it isn't that much faster, it's nice to let Microsoft Word do the hard work for you.

How to use the Format Painter in Word:

Select the text with the format you wish to copy. Next, either click or double click the Format Painter:


(in Word 2003)


(in Word 2007)

If you single click the Format Painter icon, you can click and drag over a selection of text once to copy the formatting. Your cursor will change back to normal and you can continue working.

If you double-click the Format Painter icon, you'll be able to do copy the formatting to as many selections of text as you like. To stop using the Format Painter after double-clicking it, just click the icon again (or press escape).

If you're using Word 2007 and find yourself using this feature frequently, right click Format Painter icon and select "Add to Quick Access Toolbar". Now it will be available regardless of what part of the ribbon that you're in:



Finally, this feature is also available in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, so feel free to give it a shot in those programs as well.

Excel Tip: Set Print Area

Sometimes it seems like getting an Excel spreadsheet to print correctly is like trying to control a wild elephant. Here's how to tame the beast: set the print area and adjust your page setup.

Step 1
Highlight Print Area

In Microsoft® Excel®, highlight all portions of the worksheet you want to print. You can do this by clicking and dragging with your mouse. If the print area is large, you can highlight the area by clicking in the upper left cell to be printed, scrolling to the end of the area you want to print, then SHIFT CLICK the lower right cell of the print area.

Step 2
Set Print Area

Select File|Print Area|Set Print Area. Everything contained in this selection will print when Print is selected.

Step 3
Select Print Preview

Select File|Print Preview or click the Print Preview button on the toolbar to see how the page will print. If your selection is too wide to print on the page, you can change the page orientation, or proceed to step 4 to scale the content.

Step 4
Scale Content (Optional)

If desired you can scale your content to make it fit on a page. Select File|Page Setup, then in the Scaling area select Fit to... to adjust the area to fit the current page. Alternately, you can adjust your page scale to a percentage of the original size.

Now when you print your page there should be no surprises as to how it will print.

Note: If you have our Solid Converter PDF v3 Professional version, keep in mind that you can print to a PDF file from Excel's File|Print menu or by clicking the Create PDF button.

(Note: All screen shots in this tip were taken with Solid Capture.)