Excel Print Format Trouble

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ralph
  • Start date Start date
R

Ralph

Excel/Office 2000 Premium SP3

I occasionally have a problem printing a spreadsheet that I receive from
other people. (email attachments, disks, CDs, EROM, etc.). We are talking
about very modest sized sheets (~ 30 rows, ~12 columns).

I can open them and everything seems normal. Fonts, print area, etc.I can
adjust page setup, margins, printer properties, etc. Again everything
appears normal. Save and re-save. I have installed every 'conversion' MS
has.

When I go to Print Review the spreadsheet will show up in a very small area
in the upper corner of a very large sheet of paper. Actually printing the
document is a crap-shoot as far as what is printed. Usually a very, very
large image in the middle of a landscape view across multiple sheets of
paper.

It is very difficult to get a sheet back to 'normal' (where I can control
printing output.).

I have found a work-around - copying the cells into another sheet, saving
that sheet, deleting the old one. Saving and reopening. This will often
allow the printer output to look normal, but the Print Review is often still
'hosed'.

My question is - isn't there an easier way to handle this?
What obvious 'fix' am I missing?

-ralph
 
Tom Ogilvy said:
The problem is Excel thinks your worksheet is bigger than it actually is.

Define the print area to only the area you want to print.


Clean up the worksheet so Excel doesn't think it is so big.

Debra Dalgleish has documented the technique:

http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#Unused
Click to expand...

Thanks,

Did a quick test and that was the problem. Strangely just resetting the
Print Area didn't fix it or change what would be printed. I had to do a
delete just as Ms. Dalgleish suggested.

I went back to some of my spreadsheets and found the same phenomena -
'trash' in a cell at row 1500 or whatever. But in that case the Print Area
did control what was printed.

Not that it is important, now I have a 'fix', but any thoughts on why this
would occur and be a problem on 'attached' or 'shared' Excel files but not
on my own? Weird.

thanks again,
-ralph
 
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