When it's time to print a really big worksheet, you may need help to figure out what is printing where.
Print just a portion of a worksheet
If you expect that you'll frequently print a particular area of a worksheet instead of everything on the sheet, it's a good idea to define a print area:
On the View menu, click Page Break Preview. Select the area you want to print. Next, on the File menu, point to Print Area, and then click Set Print Area. When you save the workbook, your defined print area is also saved. You can save only one defined print area at a time on a worksheet.
When you're ready to print, on the File menu, click Print. Only the defined print area will be printed.
To clear the print area definition, on the File menu, point to Print Area, and then click Clear Print Area.
If you want to print a selected area of a worksheet without defining a print area, there's another method. Select the area you want to print. Then, on the File menu, click Print. Under Print what, click Selection. This selection is not saved when you save the file.
Tip If you click Selection under Print what in the Print dialog box, Excel will print your selected area, even if you have defined and saved another different print area. The defined print area will still be saved.
Page breaks
Before you print, you can see exactly what data will go on each page and adjust the page breaks that determine what will print on each page.
For example, if there's a column that you want to print beside another column, but it will print on the next page, you might be able to adjust the page break so that both columns print on the same page. On the View menu, click Page Break Preview. You can adjust the page breaks by dragging the page break lines.
Column names
You'll help readers of a printed worksheet, especially big worksheets, by including column names on every page so that they don't have to flip back to the first page to see the names.
On the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Sheet tab. Under Print titles, in the Rows to repeat at top box, enter the row with the column names that you want to repeat at the top of each printed page.
