Guest Author - Chris Curtis

The Page tab of the Page SetUp dialog box allows you to set the orientation, scaling, and select the paper size and print quality for your printed report. The tab is divided into 3 sections:

Orientation: Choose between a Portrait or Landscape orientation. Often when you are working with a spreadsheet the Landscape orientation works best because you want to be able to accommodate more columns on your printed report.

Scaling: The scaling options give you complete control to manipulate how much information will fit on the page. Using the print preview feature, you can determine whether any of your columns have fallen to a 2nd page on the width. With the scaling you can set the number of pages wide and Excel will proportionately scale your information to fit your specifications. For example, you have a worksheet with 6 columns using a 10 font size. You look at print preview to discover that column 6 doesn’t fit on the page. Use the scaling feature to instruct Excel to fit the information to 1 page wide by as many pages tall to accommodate the length of you report.

When you use scaling, it does reduce the size of the print so you have to consider the audience of who will receive the report in making the decision to use this feature. Once you have scaled it, go back the page tab on the page setup dialog box and look at the percentage of normal size to determine if the printed report will be too small to read. As a guideline, scaling less than 75% is probably too small for distribution.

Sometimes when you use the scaling feature, your margins may appear larger than the ones you have set. You can use the Adjust to % of normal size to tweek your scaling. For example, suppose the Fit to: scaling has reduced your report to 72% of normal but it looks like you have extra room in the margins. Try adjusting it to 75% of normal.

Paper Controls: In the paper control section of the tab, you can choose the size of your paper, i.e., Letter (8x10) or Legal (8x14). You may have other options depending on the printer capabilities. You can also choose the print quality. The smaller the dpi you choose the higher quality print you will achieve but remember it will use more ink. The page numbering is set to Auto as a default.

Use this tab of the dialog box as a tool to manage the layout of your document. Scaling is the most powerful tool in your toolbox to control the proper fit of your information.