Repeating Columns at the Right

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


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, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Making Bookmarks Bold

Do you want an easy way to see all the bookmarks in your document? Word provides a way to make them visible, or you can ...

Discover More

ExcelTips: Times and Dates (Special Offer)

ExcelTips: Times and Dates focuses on the way Excel works with special time-based values. Here's how you can get a ...

Discover More

Specifying Chart Sizes

If you need a number of charts in your workbook to all be the same size, it can be a bother to manually change each of ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Printing in Black and White and Color

Excel can print your worksheets in either black and white or color. If you want to print everything in black and white ...

Discover More

Creating Individual PDFs by Worksheet

Want to print your worksheets to their own PDF? This can be quite manually intensive, unless you put the macro in this ...

Discover More

Printing a Draft of a Worksheet

Want to print out the fastest possible copy of your worksheet? You do so by printing a draft, discussed in this tip.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 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


This Site

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.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.