Brush Plus · Google Sheets

How to copy formatting in Google Sheets (and reuse it anywhere)

October 12, 2026 · 4 min read

That header style you rebuild every quarter — bold, rose fill, top border, currency format. Sheets has a "paint format" roller that copies it, but it's a one-shot tool with no memory. Copy, click, done — and next month you copy it again.

The manual way

Google Sheets' Paint format (the paint-roller icon) works like this:

1. Select the cell whose look you want to copy.
2. Click the roller once — apply it to a single target, and it turns off.
3. Or double-click the roller to "lock" it and paint multiple targets, then press Esc when done.

It works, and it's fine for one-off touches. The problems are structural:

• No memory. The format lives only in the source cell. Nothing is saved — you re-select the source every time you need it again.
• One style at a time. Your header, your subtotal row, your footnote — each requires re-finding the source cell first.
• Fragile across sheets. Crossing tabs means re-selecting the source on its own sheet, then navigating back.

The sheetXtend way

Brush Plus captures a cell's exact look — font, fill, borders, number format — and keeps it as a saved style. Then you apply that style to any range, on any tab, as many times as you like. Hit Lock and the brush stays armed while you paint cell after cell, header after header.

Stop rebuilding the same formatting sheet after sheet: capture a header once, and it's yours for the whole workbook — and the next one.

When it pays for itself

Anyone who maintains a model with recurring structure: monthly tabs that need the same header, a currency format you reapply to every new column, a "total" style that has to match everywhere for the numbers to be legible. One capture, applied everywhere, beats forty roller-clicks — and it keeps your sheets consistent without you having to remember how you did it last time.