Repeating Columns at the Right

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 31, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


2

Excel allows you to specify columns to repeat at the left for printing. Howard wonders, though, if there is a way to select columns to repeat at the right of his selected print range.

The short answer is that there is no way to do this within Excel. You could, if you desired, "fake" the right columns by following these general steps:

  1. Insert a column, of adequate width, that will appear at the right side of the printed page.
  2. Copy the cells you want to appear at the right side of the printed page and paste them into the column you inserted.
  3. Use Page Break Preview or Print Layout (both on the View tab of the ribbon) to ensure your column is working as desired.
  4. Repeat these steps for every page you want to print.

This is, obviously, a lot of work. Plus, it presents the opportunity for your worksheet to get messed up, as you are inserting columns and inserting information that is intended just for printing. If you choose to go this route, though, you may want to make sure that you keep a backup copy of the workbook that is unchanged, without any printing-destined modifications.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10836) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

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?

2024-09-01 22:11:48

Peter

"Right-to-left document" or "Flip Sheet" displays and prints columns in the reverse order. Under Print Titles on the Page Set group, the "columns repeated at left" are now on the right, despite the heading.

To enable right to left, use the search box or see https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel-direction-and-language/0b3913a8-872a-44bb-ba81-333fbd3aaabc


2024-08-31 05:25:42

Ron S

I made a slightly different suggestion
Short answer, don't do it. That is just something MS did not bother to design into Excel back in the 1980's and trying to beat Excel into submission to jump through that specific hoop with either of the techniques I've suggested really isn't worth the grief unless you are getting paid a whole lot of money to do it!

You could try a technique from word. I'll tell you up front, it won't be fun!

* screen capture the columns. You are going to have to add white space to make the columns appear on the right side of the page
* Use The Page Layout tab > Page Setup group > Dialog Box launcher button to display the Page Setup dialog
* Click on the Header & Footer tab > Custom footer button
* Pick one of the sections, since it is a picture I don't think it matters which one
* Second last button on the right is Insert Picture.
* In the dialog box, find your picture and insert it
* In the dialog box you will only see the text field code "&Picture", you will see the picture in the preview
* OK out of the dialog

It is not pretty, will take some futzing around to get the picture exactly right. And as Allen says, if the page layout changes, new rows/columns will force you to recreate the picture


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