Format Painter with Page Down autoformatting cells

[Tragar]

I'm using the Format Painter (double clicked) on separate individual cells and when I use page down the cells I have highlighted are automatically fomatted on the next page (40 cells down) without me clicking on them. How do I prevent this?

[Sam Capricci]

Don't double click on the format painter, it stays active until you click it again.

[Tragar]

Don't double click on the format painter, it stays active until you click it again.

It doesn't stay active on mine unless I double click it. I have the same issue with it single clicked as well.

[FDibbins]

to use the Format Painter....
click on it once and it will be applied only once

click on it twice, and it will be applied until you click it again, or until you press escape

So, if you only want to paint 1 cell, only click the painter once, not twice

[Tragar]

to use the Format Painter....
click on it once and it will be applied only once

click on it twice, and it will be applied until you click it again, or until you press escape

So, if you only want to paint 1 cell, only click the painter once, not twice

Twice is what I meant by double click. The problem I'm having is when I press the page down button while the format painter is active and without clicking any cells the cells one page down is already formatted. Thus I have cells being automatically formatted I don't want formatted and have to use undo each time. The only alternative is to scroll down but page down is much faster for me.

[FDibbins]

I am unable to replicate your problem

When I dbl-click the painter, then use the scroll bar and mouse, no formatting gets applied.

If I use the pg dn key instead, it formats the (single) cell that pg dn takes me to.
(do you have a stuck key on your keyboard?)

If you only need to paint 1 cell, then only use a single-click

[Aardigspook]

when I press the page down button while the format painter is active and without clicking any cells the cells one page down is already formatted

If I use the pg dn key instead, it formats the (single) cell that pg dn takes me to.

I think you're agreeing with each other (?).

@ Tragar: Why do you need to leave the format painter selected when you press Pg-Dn? Are you wanting to paste the format of a cell (or cells) on to a cell/cells much further down? If so, then one of these methods might work:
1. Using the mouse:
Select the 'origin' cell, select Format Painter, use mouse and scroll bar to get to the 'destination' cell, then click them to 'paint' the format.
2. Using just the keyboard:
Select the 'origin' cell, press Ctrl-C to copy it, use Pg-Dn/arrows to get to the 'destination' cell, then press Alt-H-V-R (one after the other) to paste the formatting (only) of the copied cell.

Does that help?

[Tragar]

I think you're agreeing with each other (?).

@ Tragar: Why do you need to leave the format painter selected when you press Pg-Dn? Are you wanting to paste the format of a cell (or cells) on to a cell/cells much further down? If so, then one of these methods might work:
1. Using the mouse:
Select the 'origin' cell, select Format Painter, use mouse and scroll bar to get to the 'destination' cell, then click them to 'paint' the format.
2. Using just the keyboard:
Select the 'origin' cell, press Ctrl-C to copy it, use Pg-Dn/arrows to get to the 'destination' cell, then press Alt-H-V-R (one after the other) to paste the formatting (only) of the copied cell.

Does that help?

I'm doing my finances and highlight certain transactions a certain color to make them easier to identify. However, I've put them off for the last 3 years which is a lot of transactions. I've started just scrolling down. I didn't know about Alt HVR. For the number of transactions I'm going over that would be a lot of keystrokes vs just clicking. Is the automatic formatting with pgdn a bug?

[Aardigspook]

It's not a bug - using Pg-Dn moves the selected cell down multiple rows, just as the Down arrow moves it down one cell. Format Painter is designed to re-format the next selected cell. Therefore, if you have Format Painter double-clicked, which makes it active until you de-activate it, and you move the selection by any means (mouse click, arrow key, Pg-Up, Pg-Dn) then Format Painter will re-format the new selected cell.
With Format Painter active, the only way to avoid this is happening is to move around with the scroll bars instead.
If you want to move around with using Pg-Up, Pg-Dn, arrow keys, etc then don't double-click Format Painter - instead copy the cell you want the format from, move to the cell you want to format then use Paste Formatting by clicking the arrow under the Paste button and then the 'Paste Formatting' icon from the choices (bottom left icon, with a % sign and paintbrush) (Alt-HVR does the same, using the keyboard) - or you can right-click the destination cell and choose to paste formats only from there.

I hope that makes sense.