Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Easy access to the format painter in Excel 2007

I tend to use the format painter in Excel when I am making the final touch to a spreadsheet before sharing it with anyone. I am, however, not very found of "clicking" on buttons to make this happen. Hence.... the search for a keyboard shortcut was started. There are several solutions - common to them is that they are not really time-saving, they are just awkward.For example, here is one:

  • First, use CTRL + c to copy the parent cell (including format). 
  • Then hit Alt+E,S,T,Enter to paste format only to the active cell.
Elegant? Think not....

Well, here's what I came up with: add the format painter to the quick access bar. (Right click it on the ribbon to access a context menu, choose "add to quick..."). 


Then, you can access the format painter by hitting the automatically assigned keyboard shortcut (depending on where you put the Format painter on the quick access bar). In my case, I reach it by hitting Alt+4. You find out by hovering your mouse over the quick access button for the painter. 

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