Few changes to a workbook are as noticeable as the options you select before printing. Using the Page Setup command on the File menu, you can control the orientation of your page, the width of your margins, the text placed in headers and footers, and the presence of extras like gridlines and cell notes. The Page Setup dialog box contains four tabs that control how printing options are printed. We'll cover each tab in this section.
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You can also display the Page Setup dialog box by choosing Header And Footer from the View menu.
To customize your printing options, choose Page Setup from the File menu. The Page tab, shown in Figure 19-3, lets you control orientation and other options related to the physical page you'll be printing on. Orientation governs the direction your worksheet appears on the printed page. Portrait, the default, is a vertical orientation designed for worksheets that are longer than they are wide. If your worksheet is too wide to fit on one page in this orientation, which is often the case, choose the Landscape option to orient your document horizontally.
The Scaling options let you reduce or enlarge your worksheet so that it fits in the specified number of pages. The percentage you type in the Adjust To text box is similar to the percentage you specify when you create custom views using the Custom Views command. This is discussed in "Saving Views Using the Custom Views Command". However, in this case, it affects the printed page, not the view on your screen.
The Paper Size and Print Quality options let you specify a custom paper size and printing resolution. These options are drawn from the settings of your selected Windows-based printer. To set the unique attributes of your printer, click the Options button in the Page Setup dialog box, and make your changes on the dialog box tabs.
Figure 19-3. The Page tab lets you adjust page orientation and other paper options.
The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box allows you to adjust the margins in your workbook. (See Figure 19-4.) Typical margin settings are 1 inch for the top and bottom, and .75 inch for the left and right. As you change the margins, Excel shows you in the preview window which margin in your document is affected. Customizing the margin settings is especially useful if you're printing on letterhead paper or other sheets that contain graphics or text you don't want to overprint.
If you want to center your worksheet between the margin settings, select the Horizontally check box at the bottom of the Margins tab to center the printout from left to right, or select the Vertically check box to center the printout from top to bottom.
Figure 19-4. The Margins tab gives you control over the placement of your worksheet relative to the edges of the paper you print it on.
The Header/Footer tab of the Page Setup dialog box (see Figure 19-5) lets you add a header or a footer to your worksheet when it prints. Headers and footers typically contain reference information about a document, such as the worksheet name, the time or date, or the current page number. Excel permits you to pick headers and footers from a predefined list on the Header/Footer tab, or you can create your own custom entries by clicking the Custom Header or Custom Footer buttons.
Figure 19-5. The Header/Footer tab lets you choose a header or footer from a predefined list or create your own version.
The following steps show you how to choose predefined headers and footers from the Page Setup dialog box:
When you select a format (and release the mouse button), the footer is shown in the footer preview window below the closed list box.
Commas in the header show how the header will be organized on the page, while the header preview window below shows how it will look. After you set headers and footers, your screen should resemble the following:
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Delete All Headers and FootersTo remove all headers and footers from a document, select the (None) option in both the Header and Footer drop-down list boxes.
If you don't like the predefined headers and footers, you can create your own by clicking the Custom Header and Custom Footer buttons on the Header/Footer tab. The following steps show you how:
The Header dialog box lets you specify your header in three sections: left, center, and right.
You can supplement the text you type by clicking any of seven special buttons to enter codes in your document. For example, if you click the button on the right side of the group (the Worksheet Name icon), the code &[Tab] is placed in the header. This is Excel's special formatting code for inserting the name of the current worksheet of your workbook at this location in the header.
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To create multiline headers or footers, press Enter at the end of each line in the section portion of the Header or the Footer dialog box.
The Sheet tab of the Page Setup dialog box (see Figure 19-6) lets you include visual or interpretive aids such as gridlines, comments, and repeating row and column headings in your printout. Gridlines are the dividing lines you normally see on your screen that run down each column and across each row, identifying the cells in the worksheet. To print gridlines with your worksheet, simply select the Gridlines check box in the Print category. Cell comments are special notes you create by using the Comments command on the Insert menu. You can specify how they're printed by choosing a selection in the Comments list box. The default (None) is not to print any comments the worksheet might contain.
SEE ALSO
To learn more about using comments in your worksheet, see "Entering Comments".
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To remove gridlines from your screen, choose Options from the Tools menu, click the View tab, and deselect the Gridlines check box.
Figure 19-6. The Sheet tab lets you include extras such as gridlines and cell comments in your printout.
Two other useful features on the Sheet tab are the Print Area and Print Titles text boxes. Both these features let you select ranges for printing. In the Print Area text box, you specify the worksheet range that will be printed. In the two Print Titles text boxes, you can choose to repeat either row or column headings (or both) on multipage printouts. To use the Print Area feature, follow these steps:
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To delete a print area, click the Sheet tab and delete the cell range in the Print Area text box. (This won't change your original data, only the way it prints.)
As you select the cells, a marquee appears around the range, a pop-up box shows the number of rows and columns you're selecting, and a description of the cells appears in the Print Area text box, as shown here:
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To delete a print area or to choose a different one (without changing your data), click the Sheet tab and delete the cell range in the Print Area text box. Leave it blank or draw a new range on your worksheet.
To repeat row or column headings (or both) on each printed page of a long (or wide) worksheet, follow these steps:
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You can verify how your print options will look by clicking the Print Preview button in the Page Setup dialog box or by choosing Print Preview from the File menu. This allows you to decide whether to make cosmetic adjustments and to ensure that you have chosen the portion of the worksheet you want.