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  • 5/27/2025
Discover the real difference between F4 and Format Painter.

Format Painter and F4 are both time-saving tools in Microsoft Excel. The Format Painter can be used to quickly copy the formatting of a cell or range of cells and apply it to another cell or range of cells. This is particularly useful when you want to maintain a consistent formatting style throughout your worksheet. On the other hand, F4 is a shortcut key that repeats the last action you performed on a cell or range of cells. For example, if you have applied a border to a cell and want to apply the same border to another cell, you can select the second cell and press F4 to apply the border automatically. While both tools can be used to apply formatting quickly, the Format Painter is better suited for applying multiple formatting changes at once, while F4 is best used for repetitive formatting tasks. Understanding the differences between these tools can help you work more efficiently in Excel and save time when formatting your worksheets.

In short, F4 replicates the very last thing you did on your keyboard. The Format Painter remembers all the formatting you do.

What does the F4 key do in Excel?
By default, pressing the F4 key in Excel will repeat the last action that was performed. This can be useful when you need to perform the same action multiple times, such as formatting a cell or entering a formula.

What is the difference between format painter and copy?
The Format Painter tool in Word enables you to replicate the style of a particular section in your document and transfer it to a different area. Unlike the copy and paste keyboard shortcut that duplicates the text content, Format Painter duplicates the visual formatting of the selected section.

What are two ways to use the Format Painter in Excel?
A single-click the Format Painter will copy the formatting from the selected cell, then click a different cell to paste the formatting.
And a double-click on the Format Painter will copy the formatting to several non-adjacent cells.


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Transcript
00:00Let's say for instance you want to highlight this particular cell here and then you select the color like this and you highlight it and you want to copy the format of this particular cell. You go Format Painter and you select that. But this is very tedious. You have to have two clicks before you get it. Another way to get around this would be to double click the Format Painter like this. This will lock the Format Painter and now you can click as many cells as you like. With a single click you will highlight the cell.
00:27But this Format Painter does not work too well with numeric values. Like for example if I click on this number here you can see I use my PCS or pieces. KG doesn't work as well and dollar doesn't work at all. The way to get around this let me press escape to get out of the Format Painter lock. The way to get around this would be to select a particular cell say for example this guy here and I'm going to highlight it with say another new color say yellow. When you select a new cell you press F4 like this.
00:57It will copy the last action that you will copy the last action that you perform. And at this point you can see that the integrity or the format of the cell is still preserved. And this also works on text as well.

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