Printing Spreadsheets in Excel: Page Setup, Margins, Headers, and Footers

Why Printing Skills Matter

Despite living in a digital age, printed spreadsheets remain essential in many professional contexts. Financial reports for board meetings, inventory lists for warehouse operations, schedules for staff members without computer access, and backup documentation for audits all require well-printed Excel documents. Knowing how to prepare spreadsheets for printing ensures your work looks professional on paper.

The challenge with printing spreadsheets is that screens and paper work differently. A spreadsheet that looks perfect on your monitor may print across dozens of pages with data split awkwardly, column headers missing from continuation pages, or content running off the edges. Excel provides comprehensive tools to control exactly how your data appears when printed, and mastering these tools transforms frustrating print jobs into polished documents.

This lesson covers every aspect of preparing Excel spreadsheets for printing, from basic page setup through advanced options like repeating headers and custom page breaks.

The Page Layout Tab

Most printing controls are located on the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon. This tab provides access to page orientation, margins, print area, page breaks, scaling options, and the Page Setup dialog. Additionally, printing options are available in the Print screen accessed through File and then Print, or by pressing Ctrl+P.

Print Preview

Before printing any spreadsheet, always check Print Preview to see exactly how your document will appear on paper. Print Preview shows page breaks, margins, headers, footers, and how content flows across multiple pages. This preview saves paper and frustration by letting you catch problems before printing.

Accessing Print Preview

1. Press Ctrl+P to open the Print screen with preview, or go to File and click Print
2. The preview appears on the right side of the Print screen
3. Use the page navigation at the bottom to view different pages if your document spans multiple pages
4. Click the zoom controls to see more detail or the full page

What to Check in Print Preview

• Page count: How many pages will print and whether that seems reasonable
• Content placement: Whether all data appears on the page without being cut off
• Headers and footers: Whether they display correctly with proper content
• Page breaks: Whether data splits at logical points between pages
• Readability: Whether text is large enough to read after any scaling

Page Orientation and Size

Page orientation determines whether your page is taller than wide (Portrait) or wider than tall (Landscape). The right choice depends on your data layout. Spreadsheets with many columns often print better in Landscape, while spreadsheets with many rows may work better in Portrait.

Changing Page Orientation

1. Go to the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon
2. Click Orientation in the Page Setup group
3. Select Portrait or Landscape from the dropdown menu

Portrait vs Landscape

Changing Paper Size

While Letter size (8.5 by 11 inches) is standard in North America, you may need different sizes for various purposes. Legal size is longer for contracts and legal documents. A4 is the international standard used in most countries outside North America.

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. Click Size in the Page Setup group
3. Select the paper size you need from the dropdown

Setting Margins

Margins are the blank spaces between your content and the edges of the paper. Proper margins ensure content does not print too close to the edge where it might be cut off or difficult to read, and they provide space for binding if needed.

Applying Preset Margins

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. Click Margins in the Page Setup group
3. Select a preset: Normal, Wide, or Narrow

Margin Presets Explained

Setting Custom Margins

1. Click Margins and select Custom Margins at the bottom
2. The Page Setup dialog opens to the Margins tab
3. Enter specific values for Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Header, and Footer margins
4. Check centering options to center content Horizontally or Vertically on the page
5. Click OK to apply your custom margins

Print Area

By default, Excel prints all the data on your worksheet. However, you often need to print only a specific portion of your spreadsheet. The Print Area feature lets you define exactly which cells should be included when you print, ignoring everything else.

Setting a Print Area

1. Select the cells you want to print by clicking and dragging
2. Go to the Page Layout tab
3. Click Print Area in the Page Setup group
4. Select Set Print Area from the dropdown

Clearing the Print Area

To return to printing the entire worksheet, you need to clear the print area:

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. Click Print Area
3. Select Clear Print Area

Adding to the Print Area

If you need to print multiple non-adjacent ranges, you can add to an existing print area:

1. Set the first print area as described above
2. Select the additional range you want to include
3. Click Print Area and select Add to Print Area

Page Breaks

When your spreadsheet spans multiple pages, Excel automatically determines where to break between pages. These automatic breaks may not always occur at logical points in your data. Page break controls let you specify exactly where you want pages to split, keeping related data together.

Page Break Preview

Page Break Preview is a special view that shows where page breaks occur and allows you to adjust them visually:

1. Go to the View tab
2. Click Page Break Preview in the Workbook Views group
3. Blue dashed lines indicate automatic page breaks that Excel determined
4. Blue solid lines indicate manual page breaks that you set
5. Drag any blue line to move the page break to a new location

Inserting Manual Page Breaks

1. Click the cell where you want the new page to begin. The page break will be inserted above and to the left of this cell.
2. Go to the Page Layout tab
3. Click Breaks in the Page Setup group
4. Select Insert Page Break

Removing Page Breaks

1. Click a cell immediately below or to the right of the break you want to remove
2. Click Breaks on the Page Layout tab
3. Select Remove Page Break

Resetting All Page Breaks

To remove all manual page breaks and return to automatic breaks only, click Breaks and select Reset All Page Breaks. This clears every manual break you have added.

Scaling and Fit to Page

Scaling adjusts the size of your printed output relative to its actual size. You can shrink content to fit more on a page or enlarge it for easier reading. The most common use of scaling is fitting a spreadsheet onto a specific number of pages.

Scale to Fit Options

On the Page Layout tab, the Scale to Fit group provides quick scaling controls:

Fitting Content to One Page

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. In the Scale to Fit group, set Width to 1 page
3. Set Height to 1 page
4. Excel shrinks content to fit everything on a single page

Fitting Width Only

Often you want all columns to fit on one page width but allow the document to span multiple pages vertically. This is the most common scaling scenario:

1. Set Width to 1 page
2. Leave Height as Automatic
3. Content shrinks horizontally to fit page width while using as many pages as needed vertically

Headers and Footers

Headers appear at the top of every printed page, and footers appear at the bottom. They are ideal for displaying information like page numbers, dates, file names, company names, or document titles. Headers and footers print outside your data area in the margin space.

Adding Headers and Footers

1. Go to the Insert tab
2. Click Header and Footer in the Text group
3. Excel switches to Page Layout view and places your cursor in the header area
4. Click in the left, center, or right section to add content there
5. Type text or use Header and Footer Tools Design tab buttons to insert elements
6. Click in the footer area (scroll down or click Go to Footer) to add footer content
7. Click outside the header/footer area or press Escape when finished

Header and Footer Sections

Common Header and Footer Elements

The Header and Footer Tools Design tab provides buttons to insert dynamic elements:

Creating Page X of Y Format

A common footer format shows the current page and total pages, such as Page 1 of 5:

1. Click in the footer section where you want the page numbering
2. Type: Page followed by a space
3. Click Page Number button to insert the page number code
4. Type: of followed by a space
5. Click Number of Pages button to insert the total pages code

Print Titles

When a spreadsheet prints across multiple pages, readers lose context when column headers or row labels appear only on the first page. Print Titles let you specify rows or columns that repeat on every printed page, keeping your data labeled and understandable throughout the document.

Repeating Row Headers on Every Page

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. Click Print Titles in the Page Setup group
3. The Page Setup dialog opens to the Sheet tab
4. Click in the Rows to repeat at top field
5. Click on the row you want to repeat, or type the row reference like $1:$1 for row 1
6. Click OK to apply

Repeating Column Labels on Every Page

If your data spans multiple pages horizontally, you may want column labels to repeat on each page:

1. Open Print Titles from the Page Layout tab
2. Click in the Columns to repeat at left field
3. Click on the column you want to repeat, or type the column reference like $A:$A
4. Click OK

Repeating Multiple Rows or Columns

You can repeat multiple rows or columns by specifying a range. For example, if your headers span rows 1 and 2, enter $1:$2 in the Rows to repeat at top field. Both rows will appear at the top of every printed page.

Gridlines and Headings

By default, the gridlines you see on screen do not print, and neither do the column letters and row numbers. You can choose to include these elements in your printed output when they help readers understand the data structure or reference specific cells.

Printing Gridlines

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. In the Sheet Options group, find Gridlines
3. Check the Print checkbox under Gridlines

Printing Row and Column Headings

1. Go to the Page Layout tab
2. In the Sheet Options group, find Headings
3. Check the Print checkbox under Headings

When to Print Gridlines

When to Print Headings

Print row and column headings when you want recipients to reference specific cells by their addresses, such as when discussing values in cell D15 or instructing someone to enter data in column F. For most finished documents, headings are not necessary and may appear unprofessional.

Additional Print Options

The Print screen and Page Setup dialog contain additional options that control various aspects of printing behavior. Understanding these options helps you handle special printing situations.

Print Selection Only

You can print just the currently selected cells without setting a formal print area:

1. Select the cells you want to print
2. Press Ctrl+P to open Print
3. Click the dropdown that says Print Active Sheets
4. Select Print Selection
5. Only the selected cells will print

Print Entire Workbook

To print all sheets in a workbook at once, change the Print Active Sheets dropdown to Print Entire Workbook. Each sheet prints according to its own page setup settings.

Page Order

When a spreadsheet spans multiple pages both horizontally and vertically, Page Order determines which direction pages are numbered and printed:

Black and White Printing

If your spreadsheet contains colors but you are printing on a black and white printer, check the Black and white option in the Sheet tab of Page Setup. This optimizes colors for grayscale output, often improving readability.

Draft Quality

For quick prints that do not need high quality, enable Draft quality in Page Setup. This prints faster and uses less ink but may omit gridlines and some formatting.

Practice Exercise

Apply everything you have learned by preparing a spreadsheet for professional printing with all the essential elements configured properly.