In Excel or Word, if you double click the Format Painter button, it will stay until you click it again or until you press the Esc key. This allows applying Format Painter to several areas consecutive...
Daniil is correct, the "double-click" option to keep the Format Painter running, is still not working (Dec 2024) and I must say, it's a real pain. Surely it's an easy fix Microsoft I'm running a new(ish) and a 2016 Office suite on two laptops with Windows 11 and it's the same in both. Maybe it's ok in earlier OS.