Setting and Clearing a Print Area
By default, Excel prints all of the data on the active or current worksheet.
You can control what gets printed or displayed in Print Preview by setting a Print Area. A Print Area specifies the exact range of cells that Excel should print or display in Print Preview.
Once you have printed the desired section(s) of the worksheet, a Print Area can easily be removed.
Setting a Print Area
Note: For help with these instructions see the image above.
Below are listed the steps for setting a Print Area. Before proceeding, open a worksheet containing data that can be used in the example, or enter data into a series of cells in a blank worksheet.
- Drag select the range of cells you want included in the Print Area.
- Click on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon.
- Click on the Print Area icon of the ribbon to open the Print Area drop down menu.
- Click on the Set Print Area option to create a Print Area of the highlighted section of the worksheet.
- The cells of the Print Area will be surrounded by a dotted line.
- If viewed in Print Preview only the data in the selected Print Area should be displayed.
Clearing a Print Area
As mentioned, once you have printed the desired section(s) of the worksheet, a Print Area can easily be removed.
- Click on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon.
- Click on the Print Area icon of the ribbon to open the Print Area drop down menu.
- Click on the Clear Print Area option to remove the Print Area from the active worksheet.
- The dotted line(s) surrounding the cells of the Print Area will be removed from the worksheet.
