Figure 1: Excel 8's Page Setup Dialog Box - Collapsed for Range Selection
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We wrote this FAQ to answer the many questions we receive on this topic from our clients and other inquiring minds in the many electronic communities we frequent.
Way back in Excel version 4 and earlier, it was easy to set the print area and define rows and columns to be printed out on each page (officially called "print titles"). You'd just click on Set Print Area on the Options menu. But with Excel 5 the Options menu went away along with the Set Print Area menu item. Here's what you need to know about setting the print area and rows and columns to be printed on each page in Excel 5, Excel 7 (95), and Excel 8 (97).
In Excel 5 you have to pull down the File menu, select Page Setup, click the Sheet tab, then click in the Print Area box, and then enter the cell coordinates of the range. If you do not know the exact sheet coordinates you can highlight the range with the mouse (yes, you can do this while the dialog box is still displayed, since this a modeless dialog box). But you have to do this while the Page Setup dialog box covers approximately half of the screen. And oddly enough you can't highlight the range first, and have the selected range coordinates appear in the Print Area box. This violates the Windows convention of "select then do"! The workaround is to click-drag on the Page Setup dialog box's title bar to move it out of the way while selecting the print area, then drag the dialog box back into full view so you can click its command buttons and have it do your bidding. Whew! Excel 7 works the same way.
This "select the print area while the dialog box is displayed" has been modified somewhat in Excel 8, where you can temporarily shrink the Page Setup dialog box while you select the ranges you want to print with your mouse. See Figure 1.
Figure 1: Excel 8's Page Setup Dialog Box - Collapsed for Range Selection
The Set Print Area menu option did make a comeback in Excel 7. It was added to the File / Print Area cascading menu. From this flyout you can either set the print area to the current selection or clear the current print area setting. You'll find this same cascading menu in Excel 8. See Figure 2.
Figure 2: Excel 8's Set Print Area Option
Easier still is the technique we recommend in our book The Underground Guide to Excel (Addison-Wesley). Add the Set Print Area button to your customized Standard toolbar for a "one click" method for setting the print area.
Print Titles are rows and/or columns of your worksheet that you want to have appear on every page you print. Again, prior to Excel 5 you simply highlighted the appropriate rows and/or columns and click on the Set Print Titles menu option that used to live on the Options menu (defunct in Excel 5 and beyond).
Unfortunately, the Set Print Titles option was not added to the Print Area cascading menu along with Set Print Area in Excel 7 and 8.
The way to set print titles in Excel 5, 7 and 8 is to select the File menu, select Page Setup, then click the Sheet tab. Now click in the Rows to Repeat at Top text box or the Columns to Repeat at Left text box, and then either type in the rows and/or columns coordinates (use the formats $A:$B for columns and $1:$15 for rows), or use the mouse to select the appropriate rows and columns. And in Excel 8 you can shrink the Page Setup dialog box while you make your selections.
An alternative method would be to just select the entire rows and columns to be used as print titles and create a range name called Print_Titles (Insert / Name / Define / type in the Print_Titles range name / Add / Close). Excel will then use this range name for print titles whenever you print. This manual range name technique can also be used to set your print area. Just create a range name called Print_Area.
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