90

Google Spreadsheets can copy cell format to destination cell, but it seems "Conditional formatting" information didn't be copied.

Can we just copy the "Conditional formatting" from one document to another?

I know we can recreate it from the "Conditional formatting" dialog but it's really time consuming, whereas if we can just copy and paste, then it's fantastic.

Improve this question
3
  • 7
    Just for who is here and want to know the copy conditional formatting In the same document: copy, then Paste special -> Paste only conditional formatting.
    – Felipe
    Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 23:49
  • 3
    Seeing that this is "stack overflow", not "google sheets user guide", I expected to see something about how to do this from google scripts. Does anyone know how to do that?
    – Sam Watkins
    Commented Jul 1, 2016 at 7:34
  • 1
    @Felipe Unfortunately when copying the conditional formatting from one column to another one (e.g. same document), the conditional formatting range simply extends, yet if you have different type of values (e.g. first is kilometers, second is time), you`re toasted... conditional formatting is global now, per both columns.
    – ro0ter
    Commented Feb 6, 2019 at 11:03

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
84

If you want to copy conditional formatting to another document you can use the "Copy to..." feature for the worksheet (click the tab with the name of the worksheet at the bottom) and copy the worksheet to the other document.

Then you can just copy what you want from that worksheet and right-click select "Paste special" -> "Paste conditional formatting only", as described earlier.

Improve this answer
2
  • 14
    Wasn't really clear from this page, but as it is now, 'conditional formatting' is not copied between documents. However, you can copy a worksheet over to another document, and after that, copy its conditional formatting between the worksheets in that document. I'm saying the same as the post here, but in other words ;-)
    – commonpike
    Commented Nov 16, 2015 at 21:59
  • Conditional formatting is now copied when using the "Copy To" feature described above. There is no need to do the second step of pasting the conditional formatting.
    – Josh
    Commented Sep 4, 2019 at 18:02
19

You can also copy a cell which contains the conditional formatting and then select the range (of destination document -or page-) where you want the conditional format to be applied and select "paste special" > "paste only conditional formatting"

Improve this answer
1
  • 4
    @womp It apparently works, but only within the same document.
    – shiri
    Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 9:26
11

To copy conditional formatting from google spreadsheet (doc1) to another (doc2) you need to do the following:

  1. Go to the bottom of doc1 and right-click on the sheet name.
  2. Select Copy to
  3. Select doc2 from the options you have (note: doc2 must be on your google drive as well)
  4. Go to doc2 and open the newly "pasted" sheet at the bottom (it should be the far-right one)
  5. Select the cell with the formatting you want to use and copy it.
  6. Go to the sheet in doc2 you would like to modify.
  7. Select the cell you want your formatting to go to.
  8. Right click and choose paste special and then paste conditional formatting only
  9. Delete the pasted sheet if you don't want it there. Done.
Improve this answer
0
4

To achieve this you can try below steps:

  1. Copy the cell or column which has the conditional formatting you want to copy.
  2. Go to the desired cell or column (maybe other sheets) where you want to apply conditional formatting.
  3. Open the context menu of the desired cell or column (by right-click on it).
  4. Find the "Paste Special" option which has a sub-menu.
  5. Select the "Paste conditional formatting only" option of the sub-menu and done.
Improve this answer