Highlight the area from which you wish to copy the format from. Click on the format painter icon in the toolbar. When the mouse looks like a paint bucket, highlight the text to which you want to apply the format. Let the mouse button go and the format will be applied to that section of text. To keep the Format Painter selected so that you can format a bunch of different cell ranges with the Format Painter pointer, double-click the Format Painter button on the Home tab after you select the sample cell with the desired formatting. There isn't an exact duplicate of this function, but there is a format copy. It is in most Apple product like snumbers and pages and Keynote. Select tha item, then under the format menu, use copy style. Select the final location, and use Paste Style.
This Excel tutorial explains how to use the Format Painter in Excel 2016 (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).
See solution in other versions of Excel:
The Format Painter allows you to copy formatting from a cell (or group of cells) to another section of the Excel spreadsheet. It is a quick and easy way to apply your existing formatting without having to manually set up the the number formatting, alignment, font, border, and patterns for the cells.
Let's look at an example of how to use the Format Painter in Excel 2016.
First, select the cell that has the formatting that you wish to copy. In this example, we have selected cell A3.
Format Painter Excel Mac 2016
Then select the Home tab in the toolbar at the top of the screen and click on the Format Painter button in the Clipboard group.
Cell A3 should become highlighted with a green dashed border around it and you will see the following message appear in the status bar at the bottom of the Excel window: 'Use the mouse to apply the copied format to another object'.
Format Painter Excel Macro
Excel Format Painter Multiple Cells
Now, select the cells that you wish to apply the copied format to. In this example, we have selected cells D3 to D5. This is done by selecting cell D3 with the left mouse button and then dragging down (while holding the left mouse button) until the full range has been selected.
When you let go of the left mouse button, you will see that the formatting from cell A3 has been copied to the selected range (D3:D5). The formatting that has been copied will include number formatting, alignment, font, border, and patterns.
So in the example, we can see that the yellow background, left alignment, and currency formatting has been copied to cells D3:D5.