Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Copying Paragraph Formatting with the Mouse.

Copying Paragraph Formatting with the Mouse

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 16, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Often it is beneficial to copy paragraph formatting from one place in your document to another. Word provides a quick way you can do this by using the mouse:

Select the paragraph whose formatting you want to copy.
On the Home tab of the ribbon click on the Format Painter tool. (It is in the Clipboard group.) (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Format Painter tool.

Using the mouse, select the paragraph you want formatted.

You can also copy the same format repeatedly by double clicking the Format Painter tool in step 2. You will then be able to apply the same formatting until you turn off format painting by clicking on the tool one more time or by pressing Esc.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9693) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Copying Paragraph Formatting with the Mouse.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Calculating Months of Tenure

Need to know the number of months between two dates? It's easy to figure out if you use the DATEDIF function.

Discover More

Turning Off Borders for Data Series

Don't want a border to appear around a data series represented in a Microsoft Graph chart? You can easily control the ...

Discover More

Incorrect Page Counts Shown in Status Bar

A common statistic to see on the status bar is what page number you are working on in your document. If the page numbers ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Hidden Numbered Items Still Affect Numbering

Word allows you to make text hidden and then control whether the hidden text is displayed or printed. If your hidden text ...

Discover More

Hanging Indent Shortcut

You can use the tools on the ribbon to adjust the indent applied to a paragraph. If you want to format a hanging indent, ...

Discover More

Understanding Leading

Those with a publishing, typographic, or design background may understand what leading is, but not how to adjust the ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 7 + 1?

2021-10-18 09:46:45

Andrew

My preferred way to do this is to select the source's paragraph marker at the end of the paragraph, right-click, and click copy from the context menu. Then I select the target's paragraph marker and paste.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.