Microsoft Word 2010′s Format Painter Tool

Do you remember the good old days of Microsoft Word 97?  If you were like me you knew every trick of the trade when it came to things like headers, footers, margins, page breaks and the like.

Now in the newest release of Word I feel lost and confused.  The simplest formatting error sends me into turmoil.  I am working under a deadline, I have committed to getting a client facing document delivered, and here I am, trying to find a fix a formatting error that I have done thousands of times before in the old versions or Word?!?  It’s like my world is coming crashing down around me!

But before I nearly lost my mind, I came across this beauty…a tool called Format Painter.  Here is how it works:  On the File toolbar you will find it neatly tucked in the bottom right corner.

I find it works best when you are trying to format textboxes, paragraph settings, bullets and margins.  Essentially you click on an example of the formattign you want to emulate.  Then click on format painter and your mouse icon will turn into a cursor with the paintbrush icon next to it.  Then highlight the text or portion of the document you are trying to format and… Voilà!  Your world makes sense again!

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