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: Putting Cell Contents in Footers.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 1, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
You may find it helpful to sometime place the contents of a cell into the footer of a worksheet, and to have the footer updated every time the contents of the cell changed. The easiest way to do this is with a macro. The following is an example of a macro that will place the contents of cell A1 into the left side of the footer:
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:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.LeftFooter = Range("A1").Text
End Sub
The macro is run every time Excel does its normal recalculation—meaning every time the contents of any cell changes or someone presses F9. If you want the contents to be in a different part of the footer, you can change LeftFooter to CenterFooter, or RightFooter.
To apply any formatting to the footer other than the default you will need to add special formatting codes, and you can also use special data codes that Excel recognizes for headers and footers. Both the special formatting and special data codes are quite lengthy and have been covered in other issues of ExcelTips.
If you are working with a very large worksheet, then changing the footer every time Excel recalculates may unnecessarily slow down your computer. After all, the footer remains invisible to the user until such time as the worksheet is actually printed. In this case, you simply need to rename the above macro to some other name that you would then manually execute as the last step before printing a worksheet.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8965) 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: Putting Cell Contents in Footers.
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!
When printing out a worksheet, you may want Excel to include, in the footer, the date the data was last saved. There is ...
Discover MoreIf you want your printed worksheet to include page numbers, adding them is relatively easy. This tip shows two ways that ...
Discover MoreExcel won't let you place a formula directly into a footer. You can, however, create a simple macro that will produce the ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2022-10-02 10:57:12
J. Woolley
My first comment below says, "The result can be reviewed with Print Preview." Actually, Print Preview will show LeftFooter from the PREVIOUS time the workbook was printed.
2022-10-01 10:56:56
J. Woolley
For more on this subject, see my comments here: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T007990_Specifying_Date_Formats_in_Headers.html
https://excelribbon.tips.net/T000559_Using_a_Formula_in_a_Footer.html
2022-10-01 10:55:10
J. Woolley
Since the footer is most useful when the sheet is printed, this Workbook event procedure might be more appropriate than the Tip's Worksheet_Change:
Private Sub Workbook_BeforePrint(Cancel As Boolean)
If ActiveSheet Is Sheet1 Then
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.LeftFooter = Range("A1").Text
End If
End Sub
Replace 'Sheet1' if necessary. The result can be reviewed with Print Preview.
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 © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments