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: Printing Limited Pages from a Range of Worksheets.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 4, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Ian puts together Excel workbooks that typically contain, at minimum, 30 worksheets. Each worksheet, if printed, requires a minimum of eight pages. Ian often updates the data in each worksheet that would appear on the first two printed pages of those worksheets. When it comes time to print, Ian would like a way to print just the first two pages of each worksheet.
When you select a range of worksheets and then choose to print, those worksheets are considered by Excel to be a single, contiguous print job. So, for instance, if you selected 20 worksheets and each worksheet required eight pages, that would not be treated by Excel as 20 individual print jobs of eight pages each, but as a single 160-page print job.
Theoretically you could specify, in the Print dialog box (Excel 2007 and Excel 2010) or the print settings page (Excel 2013 and later versions), that you wanted to print pages 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 18, etc., but this is prone to error and quite tedious. It gets even more difficult if the worksheets being printed consist of varying numbers of pages.
The best solution is to write a macro that will do the printing for you. The macro can step through however many worksheets you've selected and print only the first two pages of each of those worksheets. The following macro implements this technique:
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:
Sub PrintTwoPages()
Dim s As Variant
For Each s In ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets
s.PrintOut From:=1, To:=2, Preview:=True
Next s
Set s = Nothing
End Sub
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9579) 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: Printing Limited Pages from a Range of Worksheets.
Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!
It used to be quite difficult to produce a PDF file from an Excel workbook. Times change, though, and you now have a ...
Discover MoreIf you need to make what Excel prints be based upon conditions in a worksheet, you'll love the information in this tip. ...
Discover MoreWant a one-button approach to printing? Excel provides the Quick Print tool, but it may not do exactly what you want. ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2023-11-07 00:04:25
Tomek
When using the suggestion from my earlier comment, you can still print the whole workbook, or full selected sheets, by choosing Ignore Print Area in the print settings.
2023-11-06 23:48:51
Tomek
Wouldn't it be simpler to define Print Area for each sheet, and then print all selected sheets? That way you would have full control of what would be printed. It also would be easier to adjust if on each sheet there were changes that would expand or contract the area that needs to be printed.
No macro needed for this.
Also, you could combine this with manual page breaks to control what prints on first and what on the second page for each sheet,
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