Introduction to Print Area in Excel

In Excel, understanding and setting the print area is a crucial task for anyone looking to efficiently manage and print their workbooks. A print area allows you to define a specific range of cells that you wish to print, thus avoiding the unnecessary printing of empty or irrelevant parts of your worksheet. In this article, we will explore the process of setting a print area using different methods, including Page Break View and Manual Selection. This guide will be helpful for beginners who are new to Excel, and for those who want to optimize their print settings.

Understanding Print Area in Excel

A print area in Excel defines a contiguous range of cells that will be printed. This can be a powerful feature as it allows you to control what is printed, avoiding the waste of paper and ink. The print area can be set once, or multiple times, depending on your needs. This feature works seamlessly with both the Page Break View and manual selection methods.

Setting Print Area Using Page Break View

The Page Break View option is often the first recommended method by many Excel users. It provides a visual representation of the print layout, allowing you to see where your worksheet will be divided across multiple pages.

Select the area on the sheet that you want to be the print area. This can be done either by dragging the selection or by clicking and dragging.

Go to the Format ribbon and select Print Area.

There are generally two options to set the print area:

Set Print Area: Once you have activated this function, Excel will make a dotted line marking the boundary of your print area.

Clear Print Area: This function will remove the print area and reset the print settings.

This view will also display page breaks, which can help you understand how your worksheet will be split across multiple pages. You can adjust the page breaks and margins as needed to ensure that your printout fits your requirements.

Setting Print Area Using Direct Selection

For a more hands-on approach, you can directly select the cells you wish to print. This method is particularly useful for beginners who want to define a non-contiguous set of cells.

Select the top-left cell of your desired print area and drag across and down to highlight all cells you wish to print.

Go to the Page Layout tab in the ribbon.

Click on Print Area Set Print Area.

Then, preview your print settings using Print Preview to ensure that the selected cells fit correctly within the boundaries.

If your data is too wide, you can either reduce the column size or adjust the margins to fit the selected cells within the page dimensions.

Setting Multiple Print Areas with Macros

If you need to set multiple print areas, you can use macros to automate this task. Here is a basic example of VBA code for setting multiple print areas:

Open Excel and press Alt F11 to open the VBA editor.

In the VBA editor, insert a new module from the Insert menu.

In the module, you can write the following code:

Sub SetPrintAreas()
    Worksheets(Sheet1)  $A$1:$C$10, $D$15:$F$25
End Sub

This code sets two separate print areas in a worksheet named Sheet1.

To run the macro, close the VBA editor and press Alt F8, then select the macro and click Run.

This code sets two separate print areas: one in cells A1 to C10 and another in cells D15 to F25. You can add more ranges as needed.

Conclusion

Setting a print area in Excel is a straightforward process that can save time and resources. Whether you are using the Page Break View or direct selection method, or even automating it with macros, you can control what you print and how it appears on your pages. This guide will help you navigate these settings and make your printing process more efficient.

Keywords: print area, Excel, print preview