Custom Page Numbers on Printouts

Wendy wants to include page numbers in the header of her worksheet printout, but with a twist—Page 21A on page 1, Page 21B on page 2, Page 21C on page 3, etc. She wonders how to go about creating such a page numbering scheme.

There are a few ways you can go about tackling this problem, all of them involving the use of macros. If you actually want to print all the worksheets in the current workbook and none of those worksheets is over a single page in length (when printed), then the following macro will set the center section of the header as requested:

Sub PageNums1()
    Dim sheet As Worksheet
    Dim J As Integer

    J = 1
    On Error Resume Next
    For Each sheet In Worksheets
        Sheets(J).PageSetup.CenterHeader = "Page 21" & Chr(64 + J)
        J = J + 1
    Next
End Sub

Note that the macro doesn't actually print anything; all it does is to change the header information. If you really only want to print out the current worksheet and that worksheet will require multiple pages on the printout, then the following should work just fine:

Sub PageNums2()
    Dim X As Integer
    Dim Y As Integer
    Dim Z As Integer

    Z = 1
    For X = 1 To ActiveSheet.HPageBreaks.Count + 1
        For Y = 1 To ActiveSheet.VPageBreaks.Count + 1
            ActiveSheet.PageSetup.CenterHeader = _
              "Page 21" & Chr(64 + Z)
            Worksheets.PrintOut Z, Z
            Z = Z + 1
        Next Y
    Next X
End Sub

This macro calculates pages based on the position of the horizontal (HPageBreaks) and vertical (VPageBreaks) page breaks on the printout. You could also try just working with the Pages collection, in this manner:

Sub PageNums3()
    Dim J As Integer

    For J = 1 To ActiveSheet.PageSetup.Pages.Count
        ActiveSheet.PageSetup.CenterHeader = "Page 21" & Chr(64 + J)
        Worksheets.PrintOut J, J
    Next J
End Sub

You should note that regardless of the approach you select, you'll run into problems if the printout requires more than 26 pages.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12548) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.