Copying and pasting formatting

You can use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste formatting from one paragraph or word to another.

Many of you would already be familiar with the Cut/Copy/Paste keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Macs) + X = Cut
Ctrl/Cmd + C = Copy
Ctrl/Cmd + V = Paste

Related to these are the shortcuts for copying and pasting text formats and styles. If you frequently need to copy formatting from one piece of text to another (say if you wanted to copy your Body text fullout style to other paragraphs in the manuscript), you simply need to remember to add the Shift key to the Copy and Paste commands:

Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C = Copy the formatting
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V = Paste the formatting

To use these, place the insertion point somewhere within the paragraph whose formatting you wish to copy and press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C. Then place the insertion point within the paragraph to which you wish to apply the formatting and press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V. The latter will instantly change formatting to match!

If you want to change just some of the text within a paragraph, then select the appropriate characters before pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V.

The best thing is that the copied format/style is ‘remembered’ until you copy the formatting of something else or until you quit the program. So you can keep pasting the same format again and again.

Of course, it is also best for layout purposes if you mainly use this method for applying styles to your text rather than copying normal formatting.