Prantick Bala
Print area specifies a range of cells from an Excel worksheet which will be printed instead of the total sheet when you give the command to print. It is a useful feature of Excel because it allows printing only the specified parts of a worksheet. In this article, I’ll show you 4 easy and effective ways to set a print area in Excel.
Suppose, you have the following dataset and you want to print only a portion of this dataset. That’s why you need to set a print area.
How to Set Print Area in Excel: 5 Ways
1. Set Print Area From Page Layout Tab
The easiest way to set the print area is by selecting the Print Area option from the Page Layout tab. First,
➤ Select the cells which you want to set as the print area.
➤ After that, Go to Print Layout > Print Area and select Set Print Area.
As a result, the selected cells will be set as the print area.
Now, to view the print area,
➤ Go to the View tab and select Page Break Preview.
As a result, your Excel spreadsheet will be shown in Page Break view. You will see in this view the cells which you set as the print area are marked as page 1. So, when you will give the command to print, this area will be printed on the first page.
Read More: How to Change Print Area in Excel
2. Set Print Area From Page Setup Window
You can also set the print area from the Page Setup Window. First,
➤ Go to the Page Layout tab and click on the little arrow icon from the bottom right corner of the Page Setup ribbon.
It will open the Page Setup window.
➤ Go to the Sheet tab in this window and click on the Collapse icon from the end of the Print area box.
It will collapse the Page Setup window. Now,
➤ Select the cells which you want to set as the print area and click on the Expand icon in the Page Setup – Print area box.
It will expand the Page Setup window.
➤ Click on OK.
As a result, the selected cells will be set as the print area.
Now, to view the print area,
➤ Go to the View tab and select Page Break Preview.
As a result, your Excel spreadsheet will be shown in Page Break view. You will see in this view the cells which you set as the print area are marked as page 1. So, when you will give the command to print, this area will be printed on the first page.
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3. Set Multiple Print Areas in Excel
You can also set multiple print areas in excel. Let’s see how to do that. First, you have to set up a print area.
➤ Select the cells which you want to set as the print areas.
After that,
➤ Go to Print Layout > Print Area and select Set Print Area.
So, the first print area will be set.
Now, if you select adjacent cells to the first print area, the cells can be added with this print area.
➤ Select adjacent cells to the first print area and go to Page Layout > Print Area > Add to Print Area.
As a result, these cells will be added to the previous print area. You can see that from the Page Break Preview of the View tab.
Now,
➤ Select cells which are not adjacent to the 1st print area and go to Page Layout > Print Area > Add to Print Area.
Now, Excel will set these cells as a different print area. You can see that from the Page Break Preview of the View tab. So, in this way you can set multiple print areas in your Excel sheet.
Similar Readings
- How to Print Selected Area in Excel
- How to Print Selected Area in Excel on One Page
- How to Set Print Area with Blue Line in Excel
4. From Page Break Preview
You can also set the print area from the Page Break Preview option of the View tab.
➤ Go to the View tab and select Page Break Preview.
➤ Enclose your desired area to set as print area by dragging the blue lines in your desired location from the outside of the page.
As a result, Excel will set the boxed area with blue lines as the print area.
Read More: How to Show Print Area in Excel
5. Set Print Area in Multiple Sheets Using VBA
You can create a Macro to set print area in a sheet or multiple sheets by using Microsoft Visual Basic Application (VBA). First,
➤ Press ALT+F11 to open the VBA window.
In the VBA window,
➤ Go to the Insert tab and select Module.
It will open the Module(Code) window.
➤ Type the following code in the Module(Code) window,
Sub Print_Area()
   Dim PrintArea As Range
   Dim PrintAreaAddress As String
   Dim Sheet As Worksheet
   On Error Resume Next
   Set PrintArea = Application.InputBox(" Select a Range for Print Area", Type:=8)
   If Not PrintArea Is Nothing Then
       PrintAreaAddress = PrintArea.Address(True, True, xlA1, False)
       For Each Sheet In ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets
           Sheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = PrintAreaAddress
       Next
   End If
   Set PrintArea = Nothing
End SubThe code will create a Macro named Print_Area. This Macro will open a window for Input where you can select cells and set the cells as the print area.
➤ Close or minimize the VBA window.
5.1. For Single Worksheet
To apply the Macro for a single sheet,
➤ Press ALT+F8.
It will open the Macro window.
➤ Select Print_Area from the Macro name box and click on Run.
As a result, a window named Input will appear.
➤ Select the cells which you want to set as print areas and click OK in the Input window.
As a result, Excel will set the selected cells of this sheet as the print area.
5.2. For Multiple Worksheets
This Macro will also allow you to set a cell range from multiple sheets as the print area.
➤ Select the sheets where you want to set the print area by pressing CTRL and clicking on the sheet name from the Status Bar.
Now,
➤ Press ALT+F8.
It will open the Macro window.
➤ Select Module1.Print_Area from the Macro name box and click on Run.
The Macro, Print_Area was created in Module1 of the VBA sheet but we are using it in other sheets. So, Excel is mentioning the module name of the Macro before its name.
As a result, a window named Input will appear.
➤ Select the cells which you want to set as print areas and click OK in the Input window.
As a result, the selected cells will be set as the print area in all the selected sheets. If you open the Page Break Preview of any of these sheets, you will see the selected cell ranges are made as to the print areas.
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Conclusion
That’s for the day. I hope now you know how to set the print area in Excel. If you have any questions or confusion, feel free to leave a comment.
