While Microsoft Excel’s primary use is embedded in statistics, mathematics, finance, accounting, etc., there are other features in excel that may not be useful while you do your calculation or analysis.
However, those features can elevate your excel proficiency and create a good impression while you present something in front of your client or boss.
One such feature is formatting, and printing excel spreadsheets.
So, today let’s learn how to format an excel spreadsheet for printing.
How to Format an Excel Spreadsheet for Printing?
For an example spreadsheet, I have chosen the regression we did in a previous blog.
There are several features and nuances while printing a spreadsheet. You can choose from multiple options.
Let’s look at them one by one.
#1 CTRL+P or File>Print
To print a spreadsheet, you can press CTRL+P or go to File options and select Print to get the print features from excel.
When you get the print options, you will see many features and options to choose from.
#2 Choosing the Printer
If you have multiple printers connected to your PC or laptop, excel gives you the option to choose your preference.
You can also fax your spreadsheet if needed. The spreadsheet will be printed in PDF format.
#3 Basic Settings of Which Part(s) of a Spreadsheet/Workbook to Print
There are some basic settings to format your spreadsheet.
You can choose whether you want to print the active spreadsheets, the whole workbook, or just the selection you have made.
So, for example, if you just want to print the ANOVA table. First, select the ANOVA table.
Then go to the print features and from setting select Print Selection or if you press CTRL+P, then excel will know it has to print the ANOVA table.
You can see that only the ANOVA table is being displayed at the print preview because I selected the ANOVA table to print.
#4 Basic Settings of Orientation of a Spreadsheet
You can also choose your orientation for the spreadsheet. If you see that you want a lot of things on one page, you can choose the Landscape orientation as well.
#5 Basic Settings of Paper Size
You can choose from multiple options of preset paper sizes.
#6 Basic Settings Margins
Like the paper sizes, you can also choose a margin size for your spreadsheet.
#7 Basic Settings of Scaling
This setting lets you choose the scaling for your data set. You can choose to fit all your columns or rows on a single page or fit the entire sheet on a single page.
It depends on how much data you can display on a page without making the fonts too distorted or small.
#8 Page Setup
Till now we have seen the basic presets of a few features. Now, we are going to see some advanced features of how to format an excel spreadsheet for printing.
Click the Page Setup options to do some advance formatting before printing a spreadsheet.
You will get a dialogue box.
This dialogue box contains a wide range of customizable options to choose from.
You can center your dataset by enabling the options vertically and horizontally.
You can also add dates, pictures, page numbers, etc. on the headers and footers of the page. For example, add your company logo to the center of the header of the spreadsheet. You can also format the picture into your preferable color scale, size, etc.
In the footer section, you can add a date on the left and a page number on the right.
In the print preview section, you can notice the changes you have made in the header and footer section.
From the sheet options, you can also choose your page order of printing and the quality of printing.
Enable the gridlines to print the gridlines as well. You can also add borders from the Insert ribbon to print the borders.
#9 Printing a Table or Chart
You can make a table by selecting a data set and pressing CTRL+T and just print the table.
Just select the table and press CTRL+P and from page setup, enable the page centering options (horizontally and vertically) and excel will just print the table for you.
The same goes for charts. Just select the charts and press CTRL+P and from page setup, enable the page centering options (horizontally and vertically) and excel will just print the chart for you.
Conclusion
Printing a spreadsheet is a fairly simple thing. But a touch of formatting and some advanced features in Excel can make your spreadsheet stand out.
As now you know how to format an excel spreadsheet for printing your spreadsheets will look much better and you will feel confident while you present your findings.
Hi there, I am Naimuz Saadat. I am an undergrad studying finance and banking. My academic and professional aspects have led me to revere Microsoft Excel. So, I am here to create a community that respects and loves Microsoft Excel. The community will be fun, helpful, and respectful and will nurture individuals into great excel enthusiasts.