Replicating Format Painter on the Keyboard

I love the Format Painter —the little paintbrush icon —and I use it frequently to speed format changes in Word documents. I know a double-click converts it from a one-time painter to a repeatable device—formatting everything I highlight. But since I work faster on the keyboard than on a mouse, is there some way to accomplish the same task with keystrokes?

Yes, there is. It’s another one of those undocumented Word features. The keystrokes are related to keystrokes for copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) keystrokes—only for the Format Painter you add the Shift key. If you want to load a format, highlight the formatted text and press Ctrl+Shift+C to copy just the format—not the text. Then, to transfer that format, highlight the target text and press Ctrl+Shift+V. To make it repeatable, highlight the new text and press Ctrl+Shift+V a second time.

Details: If you select part of a paragraph, you’ll be transferring such characteristics as bold, point size and font. If you highlight a whole paragraph, you’ll also be transferring such formats as line spacing, alignment and indents.