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: Scaling Your Printing.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 10, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Worksheets can get very big, very fast. Often you want to still print an entire worksheet in a single sheet of paper. Excel makes this easy to do by using scaling.
The easiest way to scale what you print is to display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon. You want to pay particular attention to the Scale to Fit group; it contains controls that cause your output to be scaled. You normally specify a height and width (in pages) and Excel takes care of calculating the scale necessary to fit the data into that number of pages.
One of the tricks I often use is to set the Scale to Fit settings to 1 page wide by 99 pages tall. In this way, I am sure the output will fit on one page across. Since my output isn't over 99 pages in length, no shrinking is done on this dimension. I end up with output that is 1 page wide by how ever many pages long Excel needs to print.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6246) 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: Scaling Your Printing.
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Need to print just a portion of a worksheet? It's easy to do if you follow the steps in this tip.
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2023-06-12 22:44:15
Tomek
You actually do not have to specify number of pages vertically, just delete the number that is there and leave it blank. Excel will only adjust the printout size one way. It works also for several pages printed horizontally, but only one vertically. And you even are not limited to single column or row of pages. I frequently printed a very large spreadsheet forcing the width to be two pages, and however many pages were needed vertically. That way I compromised between readability of not-too-small print and not needing a very large desk. Especially if the printer cannot print tabloid size.
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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:
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