Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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: Controlling Display of Page Breaks.
There are two types of page breaks that can appear in an Excel worksheet: manual or automatic. You insert page breaks manually by using the Breaks tool on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon. Automatic page breaks are those that are calculated by Excel based on various settings, such as page size, margins, cell size, and the like.
Excel allows you to control whether page breaks are displayed on-screen (as dashed lines) by following these steps:
Figure 1. The advanced options of the Excel Options dialog box.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8847) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Controlling Display of Page Breaks.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
In older versions of Excel (97 and 2000) the program had an equal sign tool that appeared right next to the Formula bar. If ...
Discover MoreExcel lets you specify how it should behave when you press Enter. If you change this behavior, Excel assumes you want it ...
Discover MoreDon't want to always type the decimal point as you enter information in a worksheet? If you are entering information that ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2017-05-03 15:29:29
Mark W
Yes, it would be wonderful if this in fact did the trick. Unfortunately like so many settings in Excel 2010 (also primarily the automatic setting under Formulas) it doesn't take long to switch BACK to the original setting! Very frustrating! Sucks! Even when I try to reset settings for all often used Excel docs thinking maybe it's settings of individual .xlsm files for example, but still no luck. I can't, under any circumstances, understand why there's not a way to set these type of settings GLOBALLY and therefore permanently. Wow MS.
2017-03-07 11:39:14
Barbara Andersen
The Breaks tool is grayed out on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon. How do I get this enabled?
2016-03-29 10:49:20
A Croft
A quick macro to hide page breaks for all worksheets in a workbook:
Public Sub WorksheetsHidePageBreaks()
Dim wks As Worksheet
For Each wks In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.DisplayPageBreaks = False
Next wks
End Sub
Another to do this for all open workbooks:
Public Sub WorkbooksHidePageBreaks()
Dim wkb As Workbook
Dim wks As Worksheet
For Each wkb In Application.Workbooks
For Each wks In wkb.Worksheets
wks.DisplayPageBreaks = False
Next wks
Next wkb
End Sub
2015-06-22 22:12:41
Anna
Any way to make this setting carry with this workbook?
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.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2017 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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: 
Comments