Printing Excel Spreadsheets Using Page Setup
Printing Excel spreadsheets can be a haphazard process in that what you see on your screen in not necessarily what you will get (or want) when you hit the Print command. The trick to nicely-formatted Excel spreadsheets is to use the Page Setup command in combination with Print Preview to explore all your options before you print.
The Page Setup command is in the File menu in Excel. There are four tabs in the page setup dialogue box: Page, Margin, Header/Footer, and Sheets. Each of the pages these tabs lead to has a Print Preview button near the upper right corner. After you view the Print Preview, there is a Page Setup button in the print preview that allows you to return directly to the Page Setup dialogue box. You can then go back and forth between Print Preview and Page Setup, manipulating elements until you get the desired result. Think of it as a dialogue between the two.
Page Tab: The page tab has the standard options found in most page setup dialogue boxes: paper size, print quality, and orientation (portrait vs. landscape). One of the more useful features, however, is Scaling. The Adjust To option allows you to scale down the spreadsheet as a percentage of its normal size. This is useful if you are trying to scale up or scale down a spreadsheet to fit on one page. Even more useful, however, is the Fit To option. You simply tell Excel how many pages wide you’d like your spreadsheet to be, and how many pages long, and Excel will scale your spreadsheet up or down to fit your needs. The percentage of scaling it used will appear in the Adjust To percentage box, for future reference. Use the Print Preview button to preview you scaled spreadsheet before printing.
Margin tab: Most of the options here are pretty standard as well, allowing you to set Left, Right, Top, and Bottom margins. You can also set the margins between the Header and Footer and the body of your text here. At the bottom of the dialogue box is a very useful set of checkboxes allowing you to center your spreadsheet either Horizontally and/or Vertically on the page.
Header/Footer tab: There is a pulldown menu for both the header and the footer that features pre-formatted headers and footers based on page number, date and time, title of the spreadsheet and more. More useful are the Custom Header and Custom Footer buttons, which allow you to customize you headers and footers. The customize option divides the header/footer into three section boxes (left, center and right), allowing you to choose a component for each (or leave it blank). There are buttons to help you place page numbers, date, time, filename, or sheet name on the document. You can also type in your own text by pacing your insertion point directly into the left, center, or right section box and typing the text yo would like to appear.
Sheet tab: There are lots of useful options available on the Sheet tab. At the top you can choose your Print Area, either by typing in the range of cells you’d like to print or by minimizing the dialogue box by hitting the minimize button (just to the right of the Print Area box). Then left-click and drag to choose you Print area and maximize the dialogue box (again, just to the right of the now minimized Print Area box) to continue. Just below are two boxes that allow you to choose Rows Repeated At Top (such as column headings) and/or Columns Repeated At Left (such as row titles) across all your pages. Use the minimize button (right side of the box), pick your row or column, and then maximize (again, right side of the box). Just below are four checkboxes that allow you to Print Gridlines, print in only Black and White, print Draft Quality, and print Row and Column Headings (the letters identifying columns and the numbers identifying rows). The is also a drop down menu that allows you to print comments you’ve imbedded into the spreadsheet, either where they occur or listed at the end of the sheet. You must choose “Show Comment” on cells that have comments imbedded before this feature will work (right-click on the cell and choose Show Comment). Finally, at the bottom of the sheet, you can choose how your printed pages are ordered, either Down, Then Over or Over, Then Down.
Again, each of the pages these tabs lead to has a Print Preview button near the upper right corner, and there is a Page Setup button in the print preview that allows you to return directly to the Page Setup dialogue box. You can then go back and forth between Print Preview and Page Setup, manipulating elements until you get the desired result. Be aware that not all the options in the Sheet tab are available while you are in Print Preview mode; you will need to return to worksheet view (by closing Print Preview) to set print areas or rows and columns to repeat.
If you would like more information on these topics feel free to call me at 719-549-2045 or email me at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu.