Monday, December 05, 2005

Tips for Printing in Excel

Excel has a number of largely unused functions mostly because people don't realise they exist.

In the File | Print and File | Page Setup menus there are several useful functions.

In the Print Menu you can print the Selection, Activesheet(s) (default) or Entire Workbook.


One way to make this more useful is by setting the Rows and Columns to repeat when printing. Repeat includes the first page, so if you are only printing one page they still apply. So if you want to just print a selection of cells that are part way down the page, but still want to print the row or column headings (or both) then this next tip is very useful.

Now select your selection to be printed. Click File Print (CTRL P), choose Selection in the Print What box and click Preview. You should see your selection under the row 1 header. Once the other print settings are to your satisfaction then print to your printer.

This can be used with great results for multi-page printouts of databases, cashflows, and other large tables where the header column and/or row information is needed.