Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Preparing a Chart Sheet for Printing.

Preparing a Chart Sheet for Printing

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 21, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


Excel allows you to use two types of charts: embedded charts and chart sheets. Since an embedded chart is included as part of a regular worksheet, you can print one just as you would any other worksheet.

Chart sheets, on the other hand, take a bit more preparation in order to print. To modify how a chart sheet appears, display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the lower-right of the Page Setup group. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box. Make sure you select the Chart tab; there you can select the quality of the printout and specify if you want to print the chart in black and white or not. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Chart tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

If you don't see a Chart tab in the Page Setup dialog box, then you don't have a chart sheet displayed. Remember that the chart tab only appears of you have a Chart sheet selected.

As with any other graphics image, you can resize a chart sheet. As you move the mouse pointer over the sizing handles that appear around a selected chart sheet, the mouse pointer changes to a sizing arrow. Click on a sizing handle and drag the border of the chart to reflect the size you want to use. The direction of the arrowheads indicates the direction you can move the border. When you release the mouse button, the chart is resized and redrawn automatically.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11915) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Preparing a Chart Sheet for Printing.

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

Saving Personalized Copies of a Document

Need a series of documents that include an individual's name or a company name? Here's a handy little macro that will ...

Discover More

Combining Documents

Need to combine quite a few text documents? A macro may be the easiest way to stuff them all into a single Word document.

Discover More

Creating Point Pages

Want to add a page, with a different page number, in Word without affecting the entire document? The solution is a bit ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

X-Axis Dates Lose Formatting

Excel makes it easy to copy charts from one workbook to another. Even so, copying may produce some surprising results for ...

Discover More

Charting with a Large Number of Data Set Formats

When you are trying to convey quite a bit of data in a chart, formatting all your data series can be challenging. This ...

Discover More

Changing Elements in Lots of Charts at One Time

Got a bunch of charts that you need to make formatting changes in? You can use a macro (or two) to apply the formatting ...

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 8 + 1?

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.