This is the expected behaviour. From https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Copying_Attributes_With_the_Clone_Formatting_Tool :
« By default only the character formatting is copied ; to include paragraph formatting, hold down Ctrl when you click. To copy only the paragraph formatting, hold down Ctrl+Shift when you click. » (see discussion in upstream bug report at https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71481) ** Bug watch added: Document Foundation Bugzilla #71481 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71481 ** Changed in: libreoffice (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to libreoffice in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1772470 Title: The cloning tool copies only part of the formatting in Writer Status in libreoffice package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: I have found that in some cases using Clone Formatting copies only a part of the attributes of the text. In the example case, open the attached document, press the Clone tool while the cursor is on the first paragraph and select the second paragraph. Here cloning works as expected: the second paragraph gets the same font size, typeface, underlining and boldface as the first paragraph. Now without saving, close the document, open it again, take the cursor to the second paragraph, press Clone again and select the first paragraph. Only font size is transferred but typeface, underlining and boldface stay as they were. As a user, I would expect cloning to work similarly for both cases, i.e. transferring all the attributes from the 2nd to the 1st paragraph, as what happened in the transfer from 1st to 2nd. Description: Ubuntu 17.10 Release: 17.10 libreoffice-writer: Installed: 1:5.4.6-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 Candidate: 1:5.4.6-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 Version table: *** 1:5.4.6-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 500 500 http://mr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 1:5.4.5-0ubuntu0.17.10.5 500 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security/main amd64 Packages 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1 500 500 http://mr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful/main amd64 Packages ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10 Package: libreoffice-writer 1:5.4.6-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-41.46-generic 4.13.16 Uname: Linux 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.8 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Mon May 21 18:15:31 2018 InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-02-13 (462 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm-256color PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=fi_FI.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: libreoffice UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-11-05 (196 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1772470/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp