To clear formatting from the selected cells in your workbook in Microsoft Excel, you can use Clear Formats, Keyboard shortcuts, Format Painter tool, etc.

Formatting cells that aren't used can grow your workbook's file size. See how to reset the last cell on an Excel File to remove formatting.

You might need to clear all the cells' formats so that they can be interpreted as plain text. Here we tell you how to quickly clear any batch of cells depending on your needs. How to clear formatting ...

Pro Tip: To open formatting options, just select the cell (s) you want to format and press Ctrl-1 (Mac: Command-1). This actually works for anything in Excel: charts elements, images, etc.

Excel will then place a dotted line around the selected cell or cells to let you know that something has been copied (in this case, the formatting), and your cursor will change to a paintbrush icon.

However, if you paste a differently formatted date, Excel accepts the source formatting. To further complicate the situation, Excel changes the format of the target cell to that of the pasted value!