Guest Author - Chris Curtis

By default, Excel will select a print area that will incorporate the entire area of the worksheet that contains data. You may want to segment different areas for printing.

There are two methods for setting the print area:
• Using the Sheet Options tab of the Page SetUp dialog box
• Using File | Set Print Area

Both methods will be described here.

Sheet Options Tab
To activate:
• File | Page SetUp
• Select the Sheet Options Tab

At the top of the Sheet Options Tab you will see the Print Area field. Using this option you can establish a specific print area. To define a print area, click inside the print area field and type the print range desired or use the collapse button found to the right of the print area field to collapse the dialog box, then select the range directly in your worksheet. Once the range has been selected, click on the collapse button again to restore the dialog box. Click on OK when finished.

File | Set Print Area
To use this option, you must first pre-select the range you want to include in your print area.
• Pre-select desired print range
• Click on File | Set Print Area

Clearing the Print Area
• Click on File | Clear Print Area

TIP
When you have multiple ranges that you need to print on a regular basis, use the named range feature to predefine each of the print areas: i.e., PrintRange1, PrintRange2 etc. Then you can use the Name Box to select the needed print area then use the Set Print Area command to set your print range. Using named ranges can speed up your process.