How can I copy a conditional formatting from one document to another?

85
votes

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.

4
google-sheetsgs-conditional-formatting
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
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
@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

4 Answers

79
votes

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.

19
votes

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"

10
votes

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.
3
votes

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.