Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Specifying a Print Tray for a Worksheet.

Specifying a Print Tray for a Worksheet

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 9, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


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Venus has a workbook with twelve worksheets, one for each month. She wants to set it up so that the worksheets for January, April, July, and October print from a different paper tray than the other worksheets.

Unfortunately, there is no way to do this in Excel. Even in a macro there is no way to choose different paper trays. (This has been covered in other issues of ExcelTips.) The only possible solution is rather convoluted. You would need to do the following:

  1. In Windows, set up a printer definition for each paper tray you would be using. Thus, if your printer had four paper trays, you would have four printers defined, each using a different paper tray.
  2. In Excel, create a macro that printed individual worksheets to the appropriate tray-associated printers. Thus, you would have the macro print the worksheets for January, April, July, and October from tray 2 and the rest of the worksheets print from tray 1.

This sounds like a lot of work (it can be), but once it is set up it will work just fine on your system. The problem comes in if you want the same functionality on other systems in your office. The printer definitions are local to the machine on which they are defined, so you would need to define the multiple printers on every system and make sure they were named consistently. The macro would be stored with the workbook, so whoever had access to the workbook could use the macro to do the printing on the desired printers.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8772) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Specifying a Print Tray for 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. ...

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What is seven more than 2?

2021-12-06 07:50:03

Rusty

Can't you go to Page Setup - Options - and select the tray for that sheet? It works for me.


2021-01-09 09:14:53

Graham Rice

The task is actually very easy to automate for all Worksheets / Workbooks that require the same setup. The answer is to use a macro, probably best to store it in a separate workbook, such as the Personal.xlsFirst manually setup the printing options for a SINGLE worksheet.Then start the 'Record Macro' option and select the required storage location.From the Ribbon select 'Page Setup'NO NEED TO DO ANYTHING IN THIS DIALOGUE.Click 'OK' or 'Cancel'Stop the macro.Although you have not actually done anything in this macro, all of the current print options are recorded. Below is an example from my computer. ########################################Sub Macro1() Application.PrintCommunication = False With ActiveSheet.PageSetup .PrintTitleRows = "$1:$1" .PrintTitleColumns = "" End With Application.PrintCommunication = True ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = "$A:$D" Application.PrintCommunication = False With ActiveSheet.PageSetup .LeftHeader = "" .CenterHeader = "" .RightHeader = "" .LeftFooter = "" .CenterFooter = "" .RightFooter = "" .LeftMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0) .RightMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0) .TopMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.393700787401575) .BottomMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.196850393700787) .HeaderMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0) .FooterMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0) .PrintHeadings = False .PrintGridlines = True .PrintComments = xlPrintNoComments .CenterHorizontally = True .CenterVertically = False .Orientation = xlPortrait .Draft = False .PaperSize = xlPaperA4 .FirstPageNumber = xlAutomatic .Order = xlDownThenOver .BlackAndWhite = False .Zoom = False .FitToPagesWide = 1 .FitToPagesTall = 3 .PrintErrors = xlPrintErrorsDisplayed .OddAndEvenPagesHeaderFooter = False .DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = False .ScaleWithDocHeaderFooter = True .AlignMarginsHeaderFooter = False .EvenPage.LeftHeader.Text = "" .EvenPage.CenterHeader.Text = "" .EvenPage.RightHeader.Text = "" .EvenPage.LeftFooter.Text = "" .EvenPage.CenterFooter.Text = "" .EvenPage.RightFooter.Text = "" .FirstPage.LeftHeader.Text = "" .FirstPage.CenterHeader.Text = "" .FirstPage.RightHeader.Text = "" .FirstPage.LeftFooter.Text = "" .FirstPage.CenterFooter.Text = "" .FirstPage.RightFooter.Text = "" End With Application.PrintCommunication = TrueEnd Sub########################################This macro can then be run on any other Worksheet to give an identical printing setup.It could be modified to run through all Worksheets in a Workbook, for example enclose the code above with :-Sub Macro1() Dim WS_Count As Integer Dim I As Integer ' Set WS_Count equal to the number of worksheets in the active workbook. WS_Count = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Count For I = 1 To WS_Count ' INSERT THE CODE HERE. Next IEnd SubA similar approach could be used to select all Workbooks in a folder.The macro above was recorded within Excel 2019, although it should be similar with earlier versions. I do recall that when running Excel 2010 the code included some lines naming my specific printer. You may need to remove these lines, especially if sharing the code with other people.Obviously if you have several alternative printing setups you can repeat the process for each setup.


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