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 Selected Worksheets.

Printing Selected Worksheets

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 26, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


If you have a lot of workbooks that have accumulated over the years, you may have a need to print some of the worksheets out of each of them. For instance, you might have a folder that contains a workbook for each of your company's divisions for the previous decade. If your company has eight divisions, that means you have 80 workbooks in the folder. Now, if you need to print the second-quarter and third-quarter figures (from the second and third worksheets out of each workbook), you start to see the problem. Loading each workbook and then printing selected sheets could take a huge amount of time.

A quicker way is to create a macro that will do the printing for you. The following macro starts by asking you for a directory path. Provided that you specify a path, the macro then starts to load each workbook file in the directory, and then prints the second and third worksheet from each one. (The macro doesn't really care what type of workbook files are in the directory—they could be XLS, XLSX, or XLSM files. It should load them all.) Once printed, the workbook is closed.

Public Sub PrintWorkbooks()
    Dim sCurFile As String
    Dim sPath As String

    'Get the path
    sPath = InputBox("Starting path?", "PrintWorkbooks")
    If sPath <> "" Then
        On Error Resume Next
        Application.ScreenUpdating = False
        If Right(sPath, 1) <> "\" Then
            sPath = sPath & "\"
        End If
        sCurFile = Dir(sPath & "*.xls*", vbNormal)
        Do While Len(sCurFile) <> 0
            Workbooks.Open sPath & sCurFile, , True
            With Workbooks(sCurFile)
                .Worksheets(2).PrintOut
                .Worksheets(3).PrintOut
                .Close SaveChanges:=False
            End With
            sCurFile = Dir
            DoEvents
        Loop
        Application.ScreenUpdating = True
        On Error GoTo 0
    End If
End Sub

Obviously, if you have quite a few workbooks in the directory, printing could take quite some time. You may want to find some time when you have nothing else to do, and then just let the macro start running.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11316) 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 Selected Worksheets.

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

Removing All Text Boxes In a Document

Text boxes are a common element of many types of documents. At some point you may want to get rid of all the text boxes ...

Discover More

Missing PivotTable Data

Wonder what happened to the data behind a PivotTable? It could be in a number of places, and tracking it down could be a ...

Discover More

Resizing Checkboxes

If you create a user form in VBA that includes checkboxes, you may want to make the checkboxes larger. You can't adjust ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Specifying a Paper Tray in a Macro

If you are using a macro to create your printed Excel output, you may need a way to specify that paper should come from a ...

Discover More

Forcing Worksheets to Print on a New Sheet

Excel allows you to easily print an entire workbook. Doing so, however, may not give the desired results if you a ...

Discover More

Printing Multiple Pages On a Piece of Paper

If you want to save paper on a printout, you might consider printing multiple pages on a single piece of paper. This can ...

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 5 + 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


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.