Printing Tips: Microsoft Excel 2003

You’ve just built a beautiful multi-year budget spreadsheet, and now you’re seeking a few printing tips for it in Microsoft Excel 2003? Look no further. Here are some tips for putting your spreadsheet masterpiece on paper—in its entirety, or just a select portion. You’ll also know how to fit all of your sheet content on one page, rather than across multiple pages.

1. Printing 101. The most basic tip for printing in Microsoft Excel 2003 is, of course, using the “Print” button in your toolbar (the little icon that looks like a printer). Click this, and your document in its entirety will be sent straightaway to your default printer. No choices on print format. No content to choose. No collecting $200 after passing “Go.” The entire spreadsheet heads to the printer. But it could span multiple pages, wasting paper and forming a difficult-to-read final product.
2. Fit it all! We all hate stragglers—those one or two cells of our spreadsheet that split from the main document to print on page two. When looking for efficient and economic printing tips in Microsoft Excel 2003, first, set your parameters in the Page Setup dialog box. Here’s how: Click the “File” menu, then the “Page Setup” line item. A dialog box appears. On the “Page” tab, look for the “Scaling” category and click the option button that appears next to the “Fit to ___ page(s) wide by ___ tall” item. The fields will default to “1,” but you can change them to any numbers you’d like. Then click “OK” and proceed to print your document. This feature should be front-and-center in everyone’s quick guide to printing tips in Microsoft Excel 2003.
3. Pick-n-print. Occasionally, you’ll have the need to print only a specific section—say, cells A1 through B12—of your document for distribution in a meeting, keeping the rest of the document’s contents away from the public eye. In this third printing tip for Microsoft Excel 2003, you’ll set a “print area.” Simply select your printable cells (i.e.; cells A1 through B12), click the “File” menu, then “Print Area,” “Set Print Area”. Not much happens, but your selected cells now feature a dotted line around their perimeter. The next time you press your “Print” button in your toolbar (or when you use the more traditional “File,” “Print” function), only the selected Print Area will print. To clear the Print Area, select “File,” “Print Area,” then “Clear Print Area.” Your default document will now print.
4. Check it out. The final printing tip for Microsoft Excel 2003 isn’t exactly printing—it’s previewing before you print! Everyone should take a look at their document before sending it to print. There are two quick, easy methods to do this. The first is a button in your Standard Toolbar at the top of your screen—it looks like a magnifying glass over the corner of a piece of paper. Click this, and you’ll see a print preview of your document. The second method is to use the traditional “File,” “Print Preview” menu option. Both accomplish the same thing, but one requires less click-work. Once you’re satisfied with the print preview, send your document to print.

These are just a few printing tips for Microsoft Excel 2003. Knowing more than one print function option will save you a lot of frustration, a little bit of time, and more than one piece of paper.