How to copy conditional formatting rules to another worksheet/workbook?
For example you have conditionally highlighted entire rows based on duplicate cells in the second column (Fruit Column), and colored the top 3 values in the fourth column (Amount Column) as below screenshot shown. And now you want to copy the conditional formatting rule from this range to another worksheet/workbook. This article comes up with two workarounds to help you.
- Copy conditional formatting rules to another worksheet/workbook with Format Painter
- Copy conditional formatting rules from closed workbook to another worksheet/workbook
Copy conditional formatting rules to another worksheet/workbook with Format Painter
Normally, we can copy the conditional formatting rule from one range to another worksheet/workbook with the Format Painter feature in Excel.
1. Select the range whose conditional formatting you will copy, and click Home > Format Painter
.
2. Shift to the destination range, and drag the paintbrush across this range.
You may notice rows in destination range are not highlighted based on the duplicates in the second column. That’s because the cell references doesn’t change automatically in the formula for conditional formatting.
3. Keep selecting the destination range, and click Home > Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules. See screenshot:
4. In the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box, double click the ruler which does not work in the destination range to open the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box. See screenshot:
5. And then in the Format values where this formula is true box, change the cell references based on the destination range.
Note: In our case, we change the formula as =COUNTIF($B$23:$B$46,$B23)>1 ($B$23:$B$46 is the second column in the destination range, and $B23 is the first cell in the second column).
6. Click the OK > OK buttons to save the changes.
And then you will see the conditional formatting has been copied and pasted into the destination range exactly. See screenshot:
Notes: If the range you will copy conditional formatting from and the range you will paste the conditional formatting to are in different workbooks, you should open both workbooks before copying.
Copy conditional formatting rules from closed workbook to another worksheet/workbook
If you need to copy the conditional formatting from specified range and paste into different workbooks frequently, we recommend you to save the specified range with conditional formatting as an AutoText entry by Kutools for Excel’s AutoText utility, and then you can copy the conditional formatting rule without opening corresponding workbook easily.
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1. Click Kutools > Insert > AutoText to activate the AutoText pane.
2. Select the range with the conditional formatting, click the Add button 
in the AutoText pane, next in the opening New AutoText dialog box, type a name for this new AutoText entry and specify a group for saving it, and then click the Add button. See screenshot:
So far we have saved the specified range with conditional formatting as an AutoText entry in Excel. And we can insert this range into any workbook with only one click in future.
3. Just click the Auto Text entry in the AutoText pane, this range with conditional formatting will be inserted in your worksheet. And then you can follow the same steps we introduce above to copy conditional formatting.
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Demo: Copy conditional formatting rules from closed workbook to another worksheet/workbook
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