A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing

Sometimes, you want to print Excel spreadsheets to view and share data offline. When choosing your page layout setting, you can easily preview and print spreadsheets from Excel 2016 using the Print window. Please join TipsMake.com to refer to the article on how to format the page and print the spreadsheet in Excel 2016 !

See the video below to learn more about page formatting and printing spreadsheets in Excel 2016:

I. Access the Print window

1. Select the File tab. The Backstage view mode will appear.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 1

2. Select Print . The Print window will appear.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 2

Print window.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 3

II. Print a spreadsheet

1. Navigate to the Print window, then select the desired printer.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 4

2. Enter the number of copies you want to print.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 5

3. Select additional settings if needed.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 6

4. Click Print .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 7

III. Select the print area

Before printing an Excel spreadsheet, it is important to decide exactly what information you want to print. For example, if you have multiple spreadsheets in your spreadsheet, you'll need to decide whether you want to print the entire spreadsheet or just the active spreadsheets. You may also want to print only selected content from the spreadsheet.

1. Print the current worksheet

Spreadsheets are considered active when selected.

1. Select the spreadsheet you want to print. To print multiple sheets, click the worksheet first, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, then click the other worksheet you want to select.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 8

2. Navigate to the Print window.

3. Select Print Active Sheets from the Print Range drop-down menu.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 9

4. Click the Print button.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 10

2. Print the entire spreadsheet

1. Navigate to the Print window.

2. Select Print Entire Workbook from the Print Range drop-down menu.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 11

3. Click the Print button.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 12

3. Print a selection

In the example, we will print a record for the top 40 salespeople in the central spreadsheet.

1. Select the cells you want to print.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 13

2. Navigate to the Print window.

3. Select Print Selection from the Print Range drop-down menu.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 14

4. Your preview selection will appear in the Preview window.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 15

5. Click the Print button to print the selection.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 16

1. If you wish, you can install the print area first to visualize which cells will be printed when you work in Excel. Simply select the cells you want to print, click the Page Layout tab, select the Print Area command, then select Set Print Area . Note that if you need to print the entire spreadsheet, you need to delete the print area.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 17

IV. Adjust content

Sometimes, you have to make minor adjustments from the Print box to make the spreadsheet content fit on one printed page. The Print window includes a number of tools to help scale the content of your spreadsheet, such as scaling and page margins.

1. Change page orientation

Excel 2016 offers two page orientation options: landscape and portrait . Landscape guides the page horizontally, while portrait orientation is vertical. In the example, we will set the landscape direction.

1. Navigate to the Print window.

2. Select the desired direction from the drop-down menu Page Orientation . In the example, we will select the Landscape Orientation .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 18

3. New page orientation will be displayed in the Preview box.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 19

2. Refine the content before printing

If some of your content is cut by the printer, you can use scaling to shrink the spreadsheet to the page automatically.

1. Navigate to the Print window. In the example, we see in the Preview pane the spreadsheet content will be cut when printing.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 20

2. Select the desired option from the Scaling drop-down menu. In the example, we will choose Fit All Columns on One Page .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 21

3. The worksheet will be collapsed to appear in a full page.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 22

1. Note that spreadsheets will become more difficult to read because they are scaled down. Therefore, you may not want to use this option when printing a spreadsheet with more information. In the example, we will change the scaling setting to No Scaling .

V. Use the Print Titles command

If your spreadsheet uses section headings, it is important to include the titles on each page of the printed spreadsheet. It will be difficult to read a printed worksheet if the title only appears on the first page. The Print Titles command allows you to select specific rows and columns that appear on each page.

1. Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon toolbar, then select the Print Titles command.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 23

2. The Page Setup dialog box will appear. From here, you can select repeating rows or columns on each page. In the example, we will repeat the first row.

3. Click the Collapse Dialog button next to the Rows to repeat at top field: (The lines repeat at the beginning :).

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 24

4. The cursor will become a small selection arrow and the Page Setup dialog box will be collapsed. Select the row (s) you want to repeat at the top of each printed page. In the example, we will choose row 1 .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 25

5. Row 1 will be added to Rows to repeat at top:. Click the Collapse Dialog button.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 26

6. The Page Setup dialog box will expand. To repeat a column, use the same procedure shown in steps 4 and 5. In the example, we choose to repeat rows 1 and A.

7. When you're happy with your choices, click OK .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 27

8. In the example, row 1 appears at the top of each page and column A appears on the left side of each page.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 28

VI. Adjust page breaks

1. Click the Page Break Preview command to change to the Page Break view mode.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 29

2. Vertical and horizontal dashed dotted lines indicate page break points. Click and drag one of these lines to adjust the page break.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 30

3. In the example, we have placed a horizontal page break between row 21 and row 22.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 31

4. In the example, all pages now display the same number of rows due to changes in the page break.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 32

VII. Modify the margin in Preview box:

Margin is the space between the content and the edge of the page. Sometimes, you need to adjust the margin so that the display data is easier to read. You can modify page margins from the Print pane.

1. Navigate to the Print pane.

2. Select the desired margin size from the Page Margins drop-down menu. In the example, we choose Narrow Margins .

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 33

3. New margin will be displayed in the Preview box.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 34

1. You can manually adjust the margin by clicking the Show Margins button in the lower right corner, then dragging the margin line in the Preview window.

A guide to the full Excel 2016 (Part 12): Page formatting and spreadsheet printing Picture 35

Having fun!

Lesley Montoya

Update 25 May 2019