Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 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: Fitting Your Printout on a Page.

Fitting Your Printout on a Page

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 1, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365

1

I can't tell you how many times I have gone to print a worksheet, only to have the very last column or the very last row spill over onto another page. This not only wastes paper, but it is very frustrating.

To get around this, Excel has a handy scaling feature that allows you to specify how many pages you want your printed output to occupy. You set the page dimensions and Excel shrinks everything down, so it fits in the specified area. To take advantage of this feature, follow these steps:

  1. Set up your worksheet as desired.
  2. Display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon.
  3. Using the Width and Height drop-down lists (in the Scale to Fit group), specify how many pages you want the output to occupy.
  4. Print your worksheet as normal.

One of the tricks I often use is to set Width control to 1 page and leave the Height control set to Automatic. In this way, I am sure the output will fit on one page across. 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 (9238) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Fitting Your Printout on a Page.

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 two more than 7?

2019-05-25 23:30:20

John Mann

I like to use the print preview in the print page of the backstage view (Usually via Ctrl+P). I can easily see if there are "stray" rows or columns showing on an extra page or pages. With most of my prints, the controls right there on the Print page of the backstage view can get things nicely sorted.

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