How to add same texture to multiple objects

Question

How do I give all selected objects the same texture without manually applying the texture to each and every object? I am trying to get some sort of box texture onto all of these cubes:

Any steps on how to do this?

Answer 1

Apply texture to one of the cubes, then select all the cubes and the textured cube as last, then use Ctrl+L shortcut and select Object Data from the menu.

Answer 2

For your particular situation where you have exactly the same object, I will recommend copying the object data. Doing so will copy any materials, and UV maps to all the cubes.

_{(as suggested by Denis)}
First select one of your cubes (say the top corner.) UV unwrap that cube, and create the material. Now select all the cubes, keeping the UV unwrapped cube as the active object, and then "link" the data. 3D view header Object > Make Links... > Object Data, or by simply pressing CtrlL then D.
Now all your cubes share the same mesh data so if you make any changes to one, all get changed (same as if you had duplicated them with AltD).

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Your other option is to make a material that is not depend on a UV map, then just assign the materiel to all the cubes with CtrlL > Materials.

The simplest way to create such a material would be to use Box mapping.
Here are the needed nodes and the setting for cycles.

Here it is for the blender internal.

Answer 3

In Blender 2.7x, click Object > Make Links > Materials.