Format Painter

If you need to apply the same formatting to more than one item just double click the Format Painter button on the Formatting toolbar and click the text you want to format.
This button can be found on the Home tab, Clipboard group.
This button can be found on the Standard toolbar and can be used to quickly copy the formatting from one part of a document to another.

Format Painter - This button copies formats from the selected cells, so they can be copied to other parts of the worksheet or workbook.

What does it copy ?

The Format Painter copies all font formatting including underlining, emboss, outline, character spacing as well as animation.

Pasting a Format Once

Just select the text you want to copy and press the Format Painter button.
Select the text or drag the painter over the characters you want to apply the formatting to.
If you also include the paragraph mark (at the end of a paragraph) then all the paragraph formatting will be copied as well.

Pasting Multiple Formats

Double click on the paint brush to copy a format to a selection of non-contiguous characters. Single click it afterwards to cancel.

Important

It is possible to apply the formatting to non adjacent characters by double clicking on the Format Painter button.
If you plan to reuse the format a lot throughout your document then it will be quicker to create a style in the long run.
However if you click on a new location intending to select the text with the keyboard shortcut, this will not work.