Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 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.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 19, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
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:
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, 2021, 2024, 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.
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Want to print out the fastest possible copy of your worksheet? You do so by printing a draft, discussed in this tip.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 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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