Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Printing a Draft of a Worksheet.

Printing a Draft of a Worksheet

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 14, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

Excel allows you to print drafts of your worksheets. This can be very helpful in speeding up the printing process. When printing drafts, Excel doesn't include graphics or graphic-related items (such as gridlines) in the printed output. Instead, all you see is the text or numbers that make up your worksheet. To print a draft, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Page Layout tab on the ribbon.
  2. Click the small Page Setup icon at the bottom-right of the Page Setup group. You will see the Page Setup dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Sheet tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Sheet tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  4. In the Print area of the dialog box, click on the Draft Quality check box. If the check box is selected, Excel will print drafts of whatever is printed.
  5. Click on OK.

Remember that the exact way in which draft printing is implemented is, in large part, up to your printer. Don't be surprised if you get different results doing a draft print on one printer as compared to another.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6148) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Printing a Draft of a Worksheet.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Copying and Pasting Non-Contiguous Ranges of Cells

Excel makes it easy to copy and paste a range of cells. Easy, that is, unless the range isn't contiguous. If you have a ...

Discover More

Importing Many Files Into Excel

Importing a single file is easy. Importing a whole slew of files can be much more of a challenge.

Discover More

Adding Comments to Protected Worksheets

When you protect a worksheet, Excel stops users from editing or otherwise making changes to the data in the worksheet. If ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Printing a Range of Pages

If your worksheet, when printed, requires more than a single page to print, you may want to only print a range of the ...

Discover More

Printing Selected Worksheets

When you accumulate quite a few workbooks in a folder, you might need to print out selected worksheets from all of the ...

Discover More

Setting Print Quality

When printing information in a workbook, you may want to take advantage of the different print quality settings available ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.