Home > Structure > Worksheets > Print Tips Excel Printing Tips and FixesEasy steps show how to fix Excel printing problems. Fit all columns on 1 page, repeat headings on all pages, print gridlines, how to remove Page 1 in middle of sheet, and more Excel printing tips |
When printing a large Excel sheet, you can change a few settings, to make the printed pages easier to read.
Headings On Every Printed Page
This short video shows the steps to fit all the columns, and set the heading rows, and there are written steps below the video.
If the Excel sheet is too wide to print across one page, you can adjust its scaling, to fit all columns on one page. There are two places where you can change the scaling setting:
Now all the columns will fit across a single page when printed, and down as many pages as required, to fit all the rows.
Follow these steps to change the scaling setting in the Page Setup dialog box
This will limit the file to printing one page across, but won't limit the number of pages down. You don't have to guess the number of pages required, just leave it blank and Excel will figure it out for you.
In a long Excel worksheet, you might have headings in the top rows, to explain what is in each column of data. When you print the worksheet, you can repeat those headings on each printed page, by setting the Print Titles, as described below.
Note: If the Rows to Repeat option is not available, see the next section, on how to fix that problem.
To repeat headings on each printed page:
Occasionally, when the Page Setup window opens, the Rows to Repeat at Top command is not available. As shown in the screen shot below, that setting, and a few others, are greyed out.
This happens if you open the Page Setup window from the Print Preview window. In the screen shot above, I clicked the Page Setup link in the Preview window, and those commands were grey.
By default, Excel does not show the worksheet gridlines when you preview or print a sheet, even if the gridlines are visible on the sheet.
If you want to print the gridlines, follow these steps, to change one of the Page Setup options:
Instead of printing sheets one at a time, watch this short video to see how to print all the sheets in an Excel file at once. Be sure to watch to the very end, to see an important step! If you don't do that step, you could accidentally overwrite the worksheet data
Written instructions are below the video.
When you're working with a named Excel table, this video shows a quick way to print just the table, without all the other stuff that's on the worksheet. There are written steps below the video.
To print a named Excel table, without printing other items on the worksheet, follow these steps:
If you do this frequently, add the command to your Quick Access Toolbar. In the "All Commands" list, look for "Print List".
When you open an Excel file, or switch to a different worksheet, you might see a large "Page 1" in the middle of the sheet. It looks like a watermark, but don't worry -- that text won't appear on your printed worksheet.
That "Page 1" is a sign that you are in Page Break Preview, instead of Excel's Normal view or Page Layout view.
Watch this short video to see how to turn that page 1 watermark off and on. You will also see how Page Break Preview can be helpful. It lets you:
There are written steps in the video transcript, below.
In Excel, you might open a workbook, or switch to a different worksheet, and see a large Page 1 in gray in the middle of your worksheet. This is a sign that you're in page break preview, and it can be a very useful place to work.
I'll show you how you can use it, but first I'll show you how to turn this off, and then back on. To turn it off,
There is your worksheet, as you're used to seeing it.
We'll go back into Page Break Preview, so you can see some of the useful features that it has.
As I scroll down in Page Break Preview, if it's a long worksheet, you'll see dashed blue lines, and that indicates an automatic page break.
If I scroll down now I'm on page two and you can see what we'll print on page two and three, and so on down to the end of the worksheet.
If I look at the place that the first page break will fall, I'm going to increase the zoom a little so I can see what's there. And there are a few items here for February 21st.
Some of them are on page one, and the rest are on page two. If I'd like to keep those all together, I can move this page break.
When I let go, it's now a solid blue line, and that indicates a manual page break -- one that I've put in, rather than an automatic one.
If I scroll down, there's the end of page two, I can adjust it as well by dragging up.
You can just check each page before you print it and make sure everything is in a place where you want it.
After you've added manual page breaks, you can also remove them if you change your mind.
So if I click on this cell, just below the first manual page break, and right click, I can click the command here to remove that page break.
It's gone now, and there's the automatic page break back.
If I want to get rid of all of the page breaks that I put in, I can right-click, and reset all page breaks.
Then to go back to normal view:
and you're back to the regular spreadsheet view.
Last updated: November 13, 2023 12:25 PM