Microsoft Microsoft Excel: Printing and Setup

This Tutorial assumes some experience with Microsoft Microsoft Excel. Topics include PrintPreview; printing selections; print areas; page orientation and scaling; margins and centring; page breaks; headers and footers; printing titles; hiding rows and columns; inserting, deleting and renaming worksheets; linking worksheets; editing and printing multiple worksheets; and linking workbooks.

Topics: - Print Areas - Print Preview - Page Break View - Printing Selections - Page Orientation - Scaling - Margins - Cantering on Page - Page Breaks - Headers and Footers - Printing Titles

Page Setup

There are many options in Microsoft Microsoft Excel’s Page Setup, which allow you to customize your printouts. You can access this feature from the File menu, or using the Setup button in the Print Preview. (Not all options will be available if you enter the set-up from PrintPreview).

Page Tab

The first tab in the Page Setup allows you to change some general page options. Orientation options are simply Portrait and Landscape. The graphic portrays the actual direction of the paper. Scaling allows you to reduce or enlarge the printed worksheet. Adjust to: allows you to alter the percentage of normal size. You can adjust this option from 10% up to 400%. Or you can change the Fit to: feature to specify the number of pages. If you want it one page wide, but don’t care how tall it is you can leave the tall box blank. Microsoft Excel will fit to the one page wide and adjust the height as necessary. The Paper Size: option allows you to choose different paper sizes such as Letter, Legal, and even envelope sizes. The Print Quality: option allows you to specify the print quality of your worksheet. The higher the resolution (dots per inch – dpi), the better quality of your printout. Not all printers will support different resolutions. You can set the first page by changing the First page number: option. When printing multiple worksheets, the Auto option will number the worksheets from one. The three buttons on the right, Print…, Print Preview… and Options… appear on every tab in Page Setup. Print… will open the Print Dialog Box. Print Preview… will take you to the preview of the printout. Options… will open the printer properties window.

Margins Tab

A margin is the distance between your data and the edge of the printed page. Here on the second tab of the Page Setup you can adjust the Top:, Bottom:, Left: and Right: margins to an accuracy of a hundredth of an inch.

A Header is text that appears at the top of every page of the printout. Likewise, a Footer is text that appears at the bottom of every page of the printout. Headers and Footers usually appear in the space of the margin. Keeping the distance of the Header: and Footer: smaller than the margin prevents them from overlapping the data.

This tab of the Page Setup also allows you to centre the data on the page. Microsoft Excel will centre the data within the margins. 

Header/Footer Tab

The third tab of the Page Setup is Header/Footer. Remember, a Header is text that appears at the top of every page of the printout, and a Footer is text that appears at the bottom of every page of the printout.

The Header: and Footer: drop down boxes allow you to choose a built-in header/footer. You can also custom-build a header/footer by choosing the Custom Header… or Custom Footer… buttons. If you select a built-in header/footer and then click on the corresponding custom button, Microsoft Excel will allow you to customize that built-in option. Custom Header When you click the custom button you will see a screen such as this:

There are three sections in which you can enter you text. The Left Section will left align its contents on the left side of the page, the Canter Section will centre the text in the middle of the page, and the Right Section will right align the text along the right margin. You can use all three Sections. Custom Footer The Custom Footer has a very similar window. The only difference is this information will go along the bottom of every page.

Custom Toolbar

The first button is the Font button. You can have several different font formats. You cannot change the colour of the text, but you can change the size, bold, italics, underlines and fonts. You can set the format and then type your text, or type the text, highlight it and then change the font.

The next button will insert a page number. It will actually insert the text “&[Page]”. This is the code for Microsoft Excel to calculate the page number as it prints.

The third button will insert the total number of pages for this printout. It will actually insert the text “&[Pages]”. This is the code for Microsoft Excel to calculate the total number of pages.

The fourth button will insert the current date. It will actually insert the text “&[Date]”. This is the code for Microsoft t Excel to calculate the day the printout is occurring. This will change with each passing day. If you want it to display the day the worksheet was created, you will need to write the actual date in. This button is for automatically updated dates.

The fifth button will insert the current time. It will actually insert the text “&[Time]". This is the code for Microsoft  Excel to calculate the time of the printout. Like the Date button, this will automatically update.

The sixth button allows the full Path and file name to be inserted will actually insert the text &[Path]&[File]. As expected this instructs Microsoft Excel to search for the Folder in which the file is stored.

The seventh button will insert the filename. It will actually insert the text “&[File]". This is the code for  Microsoft Excel to lookup the name of the file. This allows you to rename the file without having to redo the header/footer.

The next button will insert the worksheet name. It will actually insert the text “&[Tab]”. This is the code for Microsoft Excel to look up the name of the worksheet. This allows you to rename the worksheet without having to redo the header/footer.

Newer versions of Microsoft Excel will also allow the insertion of an image into the Header or Footer. Clicking the ninth button ill launch the Insert Picture Dialog, simply find the desired image and7 select it.With this it is very easy to include a Company logo into all pages that are printed.

Sheet Tab

The last tab of the Page Setup is Sheet. This tab allows you to customize what is printed and in what order. The Print Area: option allows you to decide which cells you want to print. This is not available if you enter page set-up from print preview mode. You can automatically fill in this box by clicking inside the blank, and then selecting cells. You can move the dialog box by clicking and dragging the blue title bar. If the dialog box is too big, click on the red arrow to collapse the box. You can use this same method to fill in the Print Titles. These two options allow you to repeat rows or columns on every page of the printout; for example, a row of titles, or a column of last name. Select Rows to repeat at top if you want specific rows as your horizontal title for each page. Select Columns to repeat at left if you want vertical titles on each page. In the Print section if you do not place borders around your cells, your data will simply be put on the page without borders. If you put borders on the entire spreadsheet, some older printers may not print out all of the borders.

The Gridlines option will tell Microsoft  Excel to print the gridlines around the cells with data in them. This takes up much less memory than the formatted borders. No Options Set Gridlines

The Row and Column headings option will print out the row headings (the row numbers) and the column headings (the column letters). No Options Set Row and column headings

The Black and White option will print your data in simple black and white. This does not include shades of gray. Microsoft Microsoft Excel will remove all colour formatting from the printout. No Options Set (coloured) Black and white

As you create and work with your Microsoft  Excel workbook you can insert comments (from the Insert Menu). These comments are usually just to view on the screen; notes to help you with entering and processing the data. The Comments option here in the page set-up allows you to print the inserted comments. You have three choices: At end of sheet, As displayed on sheet, and the default, (none). These options will print only the comments that are displayed. To display all comments, click Comments from the View menu. This will open a toolbar with an option to show/hide all comments.

The Draft quality option is the ideal quick printout. it will often reduce printing time. This option will not print gridlines and most graphics.

The Page Order option allows you to decide how multiple pages will print out. By default Microsoft Microsoft Excel reads the data from the upper left corner straight down to the end, and then over to the next page full of data. If you want to change the print order, such that  Microsoft Excel reads across and then down, this is the option. These sample pictures show the different options available.

Print Preview Print

Preview is found under the File menu, or by clicking on this button on the standard toolbar. This will change the view of your screen so you can see what the document will look like when it’s printed.

 Print Preview Toolbar

1.If there is more than one printable page of data, the Next button will let you view the page following the one currently on the screen. This will be greyed out if there is only one page or if you are viewing the last page.

2. If there is more than one printable page of data, the Previous button will let you view the page before the one currently on the screen. This will be greyed out if there is only one page or if you are viewing the first page.

3. The Zoom button has a dark border around it because it is the default button on this screen. That is, if you press Enter on the keyboard you will push this button. The Zoom button and the Enter key will enlarge and decrease your view, focusing on the centre of the page. If you click on the document with the mouse (which appears as a magnifying glass when you float over the document), you will enlarge and decrease your view, focusing on where you clicked.

4. The Print utton will open the Print Dialog Box that allows you to change your printer options and print the previewed data.

5. The Setup button will open the Page Setup Dialog Box. Some features on the sheet tab will not be available when Page Setup is accessed in this view.

6. The Margins button turns your margin guidelines on and off. There is a guide line for: Header, Top Margin, Left Margin, Right Margin, Bottom Margin, Footer and for each column that contains data. You can adjust any of these guides to better fit your data on the page.

7. The Page Break Preview button will take you to a view where you can adjust the Page Breaks. If you were in this view before you came into Print Preview, this button will say Normal View.

8. This button is the Close button for the print preview screen. If you click it, it will return you to the last view you were in (Normal View/Page Break Preview).

Page Break Preview From normal view or page break preview, you can set a page break by choosing Page Break from the insert menu. This will set a page break above and to the left of the current cell. You can remove page breaks that have been inserted by making the current cell be directly below or to the left of the page break and choosing Remove Page Break from the Insert menu. The Print Preview menu has a Page Break Preview button. This changes to a Normal View button when you are in Page Break Preview. You have to go through the Page Setup to switch between these two views.

The Page Break Preview allows you to see where all the page breaks are. The dashed lines are soft page breaks, they occur naturally, within the parameters of the page (usually: 8.5”x11”, with 1” margins). You can insert a page break as stated above, or you can put your mouse over one of the blue dashed lines and drag it to your desired location. When you set a page break, either through the Insert menu or by dragging one of the dashed lines, the page break will be represented as a solid line in this view.

9. The Help button will launch the Microsoft  Excel Help file.

Number of Worksheets

By default, Microsoft  Excel's new documents usually have three worksheets. If you would like Microsoft Excel to open new workbooks with more (or less) sheets, you can change the setting from Tools->Options, on the General Tab.

You can set the number of Sheets in new workbook to any number between 1 and 255.This will reset the defaults of all new worksheets.

Inserting Worksheets

There are a number of ways to insert a worksheet into an Microsoft Excel Workbook, but the fastest is to go through the menu, Insert->Worksheet. This will insert a worksheet in front of the current worksheet.

You can also insert a new worksheet by right clicking on the worksheet name and choosing Insert. This will give you a pop up window asking what you want to insert. You can choose Worksheet and then click OK.

Moving and Copying Worksheets

Worksheets can be moved using Window's Click and Drag Feature. That is you can click on the sheet you want to move, don't let go, and drag the new worksheet left or right to the new location. When you are holding on to a sheet, two things happen, one your mouse cursor is displays a sheet of paper, and two a little black arrow will appear above the sheets, this black trianglular arrow will show you where the new sheet is going to be placed.

If you hold down the control (Ctrl) key while moving the worksheet, you can create a duplicate worksheet. (Remember to let go of the mouse before letting go of the keyboard). As with Inserting Worksheets you can right click on the sheet name to move your sheet. There are more options when using Move or Copy... from the short-cut list. You can also find this option under Edit->Move or Copy Worksheet.... The window that comes up will allow you to choose which workbook you would like to move this sheet to, including an option to create a (new book). This window also allows you to move the worksheet before any of the current sheets or to the end. To create a copy of the worksheet, instead of moving it, click the check box at the bottom of this window. Deleting Worksheets The fastest way to completely remove a worksheet from your workbook is to right click on the name of the worksheet and choose Delete from the worksheet menu; or you can choose Delete Sheet from the Edit menu. Either way, you will get a warning message:

Click OK to delete the worksheet. Renaming Worksheets The fastest way to rename a worksheet is to double click on the name of that worksheet. The text will turn black, indicating that it is highlighted. Type the new name for your worksheet and press enter to accept it.

You can also choose Rename from the right click menu and from Format->Sheet->Rename. These methods will behave exactly as double clicking does, it will highlight the name of the worksheet to allow you to write in the new name. Don't forget; press enter to accept your new value.

Selecting Multiple Worksheets

The shift and control keys on the keyboard allow you to work with multiple selections throughout Microsoft Windows, no matter if you are working with file names, cells of a worksheet or even the entire worksheets themselves. To select specific worksheets use the control key.

- Click on the first worksheet you would like

- Hold down the control key on the keyboard, and click on the second worksheet

- Keeping the control key pressed, click on each worksheet you would like to select

To select a range of worksheets use the shift key.

- Click on the first worksheet you would like

- Hold down the shift key on the keyboard, and click on the last worksheet

When  multiple worksheets are selected, anything typed, formatted etc on the current worksheet will appear on every worksheet that is selected. This is a great way to ensure a consistency of formats between your worksheets, especially for the Page Setup options. To drop the selection, click on a worksheet and then Shift-Click on the same worksheet again.

Linking Worksheets

Linking worksheets is much easier than you might imagine. Click in the cell where you want the result to be, press the equal sign (=) on the keyboard and then use your mouse to click on the worksheet (or workbook!) that has the original data, click one time on the correct cell and press Enter on the keyboard to accept it.