What are the printing options in Excel?

This chapter teaches you how to print a worksheet and how to change some important print settings in Excel.

Print a Worksheet

To print a worksheet in Excel, execute the following steps.

1. On the File tab, click Print.

2. To preview the other pages that will be printed, click 'Next Page' or 'Previous Page' at the bottom of the window.

3. To print the worksheet, click the big Print button.

What to Print

Instead of printing the entire worksheet, you can also print the current selection.

1. First, select the range of cells you want to print.

2. Next, under Settings, select Print Selection.

3. To print the selection, click the big Print button.

Note: you can also print the active sheets (first select the sheets by holding down CTRL and clicking the sheet tabs) or print the entire workbook. Use the boxes next to Pages (see first screenshot) to only print a few pages of your document. For example, 2 to 2 only prints the second page.

Multiple Copies

To print multiple copies, execute the following steps.

1. Use the arrows next to the Copies box.

2. If one copy contains multiple pages, you can switch between Collated and Uncollated. For example, if you print 6 copies, Collated prints the entire first copy, then the entire second copy, etc. Uncollated prints 6 copies of page 1, 6 copies of page 2, etc.

Orientation

You can switch between Portrait Orientation (more rows but fewer columns) and Landscape Orientation (more columns but fewer rows).

Page Margins

To adjust the page margins, execute the following steps.

1. Select one of the predefined margins (Normal, Wide or Narrow) from the Margins drop-down list.

2. Or click the 'Show Margins' icon at the bottom right of the window. Now you can drag the lines to manually change the page margins.

Scaling

If you want to fit more data on one page, you can fit the sheet on one page. To achieve this, execute the following steps.

1. Select 'Fit Sheet on One Page' from the Scaling drop-down list.

Note: you can also shrink the printout to one page wide or one page high. Click Custom Scaling Options to manually enter a scaling percentage or to fit the printout to a specific number of pages wide and tall. Be careful, Excel doesn't warn you when your printout becomes unreadable.

There may be times when you want to print a workbook to view and share your data offline. Once you've chosen your page layout settings, it's easy to preview and print a workbook from Excel using the Print pane.

Optional: Download our practice workbook.

Watch the video below to learn more about page layout and printing.

To access the Print pane:

1. Select the File tab. Backstage view will appear.
   
2. Select Print. The Print pane will appear.
   

Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using the Print pane.

edit hotspots

Scaling

Here, you can choose how to scale your worksheets for printing.

Margins

Here, you can adjust the page margins.

Paper Size

You can choose the paper size you want to use, if your printer supports this setting.

Page Orientation

Here, you can choose portrait or landscape orientation.

Collated

If you are printing multiple copies, you can choose whether they will be collated or uncollated.

Print Range

Here, you can choose to print the active sheets, the entire workbook, or a selection.

Printer

If you have multiple printers, select the one you want to use.

Click this button to print the workbook.

Copies

Here, you can choose how many copies you want to print.

Page Selection

You can click the arrows to view a different page in the Preview pane.

Show Margins / Zoom to Page

The Zoom to Page button on the right will zoom in and out in the Preview pane.

The Show Margins button on the left will show the margins in the Preview pane.

Preview Pane

Here, you can see a preview of how your worksheets will look when printed.

To print a workbook:

1. Navigate to the Print pane, then select the desired printer.
   
2. Enter the number of copies you want to print.
   
3. Select any additional settings if needed (see above interactive).
   
4. Click Print.
   

Choosing a print area

Before you print an Excel workbook, it's important to decide exactly what information you want to print. For example, if you have multiple worksheets in your workbook, you will need to decide if you want to print the entire workbook or only active worksheets. There may also be times when you want to print only a selection of content from your workbook.

To print active sheets:

Worksheets are considered active when selected.

1. Select the worksheet you want to print. To print multiple worksheets, click the first worksheet, hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard, then click any other worksheets you want to select.
   
2. Navigate to the Print pane.
3. Select Print Active Sheets from the Print Range drop-down menu.
   
4. Click the Print button.
   

To print the entire workbook:

1. Navigate to the Print pane.
2. Select Print Entire Workbook from the Print Range drop-down menu.
   
3. Click the Print button.

To print a selection:

In our example, we'll print the records for the top 40 salespeople on the Central worksheet.

1. Select the cells you want to print.
   
2. Navigate to the Print pane.
3. Select Print Selection from the Print Range drop-down menu.
   
4. A preview of your selection will appear in the Preview pane.
   
5. Click the Print button to print the selection.

If you prefer, you can also set the print area in advance so you'll be able to visualize which cells will be printed as you work in Excel. Simply select the cells you want to print, click the Page Layout tab, select the Print Area command, then choose Set Print Area. Keep in mind that if you ever need to print the entire workbook, you'll need to clear the print area.

Adjusting content

On occasion, you may need to make small adjustments from the Print pane to fit your workbook content neatly onto a printed page. The Print pane includes several tools to help fit and scale your content, such as scaling and page margins.

To change page orientation:

Excel offers two page orientation options: landscape and portrait. Landscape orients the page horizontally, while portrait orients the page vertically. In our example, we'll set the page orientation to landscape.

1. Navigate to the Print pane.
2. Select the desired orientation from the Page Orientation drop-down menu. In our example, we'll select Landscape Orientation.
   
3. The new page orientation will be displayed in the Preview pane.
   

To fit content before printing:

If some of your content is being cut off by the printer, you can use scaling to fit your workbook to the page automatically.

1. Navigate to the Print pane. In our example, we can see in the Preview pane that our content will be cut off when printed.
2. Select the desired option from the Scaling drop-down menu. In our example, we'll select Fit All Columns on One Page.
   
3. The worksheet will be condensed to fit onto a single page.
   

Keep in mind that worksheets will become more difficult to read as they are scaled down, so you may not want to use this option when printing a worksheet with a lot of information. In our example, we'll change the scaling setting back to No Scaling.

To include Print Titles:

If your worksheet uses title headings, it's important to include these headings on each page of your printed worksheet. It would be difficult to read a printed workbook if the title headings appeared only on the first page. The Print Titles command allows you to select specific rows and columns to appear on each page.

1. Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon, then select the Print Titles command.
   
2. The Page Setup dialog box will appear. From here, you can choose rows or columns to repeat on each page. In our example, we'll repeat a row first.
3. Click the Collapse Dialog button next to the Rows to repeat at top: field.
   
4. The cursor will become a small selection arrow, and the Page Setup dialog box will be collapsed. Select the row(s) you want to repeat at the top of each printed page. In our example, we'll select row 1.
   
5. Row 1 will be added to the Rows to repeat at top: field. Click the Collapse Dialog button again.
   
6. The Page Setup dialog box will expand. To repeat a column as well, use the same process shown in steps 4 and 5. In our example, we've selected to repeat row 1 and column A.
7. When you're satisfied with your selections, click OK.
   
8. In our example, row 1 appears at the top of every page, and column A appears at the left of every page.
   

To adjust page breaks:

1. Click the Page Break Preview command to change to Page Break view.
   
2. Vertical and horizontal blue dotted lines denote the page breaks. Click and drag one of these lines to adjust that page break.
   
3. In our example, we've set the horizontal page break between rows 21 and 22.
   
4. In our example, all the pages now show the same number of rows due to the change in the page break.
   

To modify margins in the Preview pane:

A margin is the space between your content and the edge of the page. Sometimes you may need to adjust the margins to make your data fit more comfortably. You can modify page margins from the Print pane.

1. Navigate to the Print pane.
2. Select the desired margin size from the Page Margins drop-down menu. In our example, we'll select Narrow Margins.
   
3. The new page margins will be displayed in the Preview pane.
   

You can adjust the margins manually by clicking the Show Margins button in the lower-right corner, then dragging the margin markers in the Preview pane.

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