Lesson · 12 min

Page Layout and Printing

Learn how to control margins, orientation, scaling, print area, print titles, and page breaks to produce professional printed reports.

By the end of this lesson you can

Set a print area and control what appears on each page
Repeat header rows on every printed page
Use Page Break Preview to control pagination
Fit a wide worksheet onto a sensible number of pages

Video

Watch the lesson video, then complete the reading and challenge.

Lesson Notes

Read through the key concepts before you try the challenge.

Spreadsheets print badly by default

On the job

You print the supply report for a meeting at Lakeside Medical Associates.

You press print. Fourteen pages emerge: columns A through F on pages one to seven, columns G through J on pages eight to fourteen, with no headers on any page but the first. Nobody can reassemble it into anything readable.

Your task: Configure the print setup so a spreadsheet becomes a document someone can read on paper.

The default assumes you want everything at full size, which almost never suits a worksheet wider than a page. Four settings fix nearly every printing problem, and they take about a minute.

Setting	Where	What it does
Print Area	Page Layout > Print Area > Set	Prints only the selected range, not every stray cell
Print Titles	Page Layout > Print Titles > Rows to repeat at top	Repeats the header row on every page
Fit All Columns on One Page	File > Print > Scaling	Stops columns splitting across separate pages
Orientation	Page Layout > Orientation	Landscape suits most worksheets, which are wider than tall

The four settings that fix spreadsheet printing

Page Break Preview (View tab) shows blue lines marking where pages will break, and you can drag them. It is far more direct than adjusting scaling percentages and guessing — you see the pagination and set it explicitly.

'Fit Sheet on One Page' will shrink a large worksheet until it is genuinely unreadable — six-point type is common. If a sheet will not fit legibly, print it in sections with repeated headers, or reconsider whether the recipient needs all the columns.

Accessing the Print Pane

To begin printing in Excel, select the File tab to open Backstage View, then choose Print. The Print pane allows you to preview and configure all print settings.

Choosing What to Print

From the Settings section, you can choose to print Active Sheets, the Entire Workbook, or a Selection. Always verify the preview before printing.

Setting a Print Area

To define exactly what prints, select the desired cells, go to the Page Layout tab, click Print Area, and choose Set Print Area.

Changing Page Orientation

Excel offers Portrait (vertical) and Landscape (horizontal) orientation. Landscape is best for wide data tables.

Using Scaling Options

If your worksheet content is cut off, use scaling options such as 'Fit All Columns on One Page' or 'Fit Sheet on One Page'. Be aware that scaling reduces text size.

Adjusting Margins

Margins control the spacing between your worksheet content and the page edge. Choose presets like Normal, Wide, or Narrow, or manually adjust margins in the preview pane.

Using Print Titles

Use Print Titles to repeat header rows or columns on every printed page. Go to Page Layout → Print Titles and specify rows to repeat at top and columns to repeat at left.