How to set multiple print areas in Excel Mac

Before you print, learn these tricks

Table of Contents Show

Before you print, learn these tricks
What to Know
Set One or More Excel Print Areas
How to Add Cells to an Excel Print Area
How to Clear a Print Area in Excel
View Your Excel Print Areas
Reasons to Set Print Areas in Excel
How do you select multiple print areas in Excel for Mac?
How do I change print settings in Excel for Mac?
How do you change the print area on a Mac?
How do you print multiple sheets in Excel on a Mac?

What to Know

Set print area: Select cells > go to Page Layout tab > Page Setup > Print Area > select Set Print Area.
Set multiple: Hold Ctrl while selecting areas > Page Layout > Page Setup > Print Area > select Set Print Area.
Add cells to area: Select cells to add > Page Layout > Page Setup > Print Area > Add to Print Area.

This article explains how to set the print area for standard paper sizes in Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, and Excel for Microsoft 365.

Set One or More Excel Print Areas

Open a worksheet and select the cells that you want to be part of the print area.
To set more than one print area, hold down the Ctrl key and select the areas you want to print. Each print area gets a separate page.
Go to the Page Layout tab.
In the Page Setup group, click Print Area and select Set Print Area from the drop-down menu.
When you save your workbook, it also retains the print areas.

How to Add Cells to an Excel Print Area

Once you’ve set a print area, you can add adjacent cells to it, if you made a mistake the first time or input additional data.

If you try to add cells that are not adjacent to your print area, Excel creates a new one for those cells.

On your worksheet, select the adjacent cells you want to add to the existing print area.
Go to the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon.
In the Page Setup section, click Print Area > Add to Print Area.

How to Clear a Print Area in Excel

You can also change print areas that you no longer need or created by mistake.

Click a cell in a print area that you want to remove.
Go to the Page Layout tab.
In the Page Setup section, click Print Area > Clear Print Area.

View Your Excel Print Areas

You can see your print areas and preview them before printing your spreadsheet.

To see your print areas:

Go to the View tab.
In the Workbook Views section, click Page Break Preview.
Click Normal in the Workbook Views section to return to the spreadsheet.
When you’re ready to print, click File > Print.
To the right of the print options, you can scroll through each printable page in the document.

Reasons to Set Print Areas in Excel

If you print out a large spreadsheet without setting print areas, you run the risk of outputting hard to read, unformatted pages. If the sheet is wider or longer than the paper your printer is using, you’ll end up cutting off rows and columns. It won’t look pretty. Setting print areas gives you control over what each page looks like, so it’s easy to read and understand.

Thanks for letting us know!

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Multiple Print Areas on a Single Printed Page.

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 15, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365

Ingrid set up her worksheet just the way she wanted, and then defined two non-contiguous areas on the worksheet as her print area. She first selected A1:C5, then held down the Ctrl key as she selected E3:G5. This selection was then defined as the print area. When Ingrid printed the worksheet, each of the selected ranges (A1:C5 and E3:G5) printed, but they printed on separate sheets of paper. Ingrid was hoping to get them on a single sheet of paper.

This happens because Excel automatically prints separate ranges on separate sheets of paper; there is no way to configure Excel to do this printing differently. There are a couple of things you can try as workarounds, however.

First, you could print multiple pages per sheet of paper. Follow these steps:

Set your two ranges as your print area, as you have already done.
Press Ctrl+P. Excel displays the Print dialog box (Excel 2007) or the printing options (later versions of Excel).
Make sure the destination printer is properly selected at the top of the dialog box.
Click the Properties button (Excel 2007) or the Printer Properties link (later versions of Excel). Excel displays the Properties dialog box for the selected printer.
Browse through the available tabs and controls. You are searching for one that allows you to set multiple pages per sheet of paper. Set this control so that 2 pages are printed per sheet of paper.
Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
Click OK (Excel 2007) or Print (later versions of Excel) to print the worksheet.

The result, for most printers, is that Excel combines two printed pages on a single sheet of paper. It does this by reducing the size of each of the two pages and printing them in landscape mode on the page. If you cannot find a control that allows you to specify multiple pages per sheet (step 5), it may be that your printer driver doesn't offer this capability. In that case, you won't be able to use this workaround and will have to try the next one.

The next solution involves simply creating a "print" worksheet. This sheet can contain references to the original data ranges, combining them on a single worksheet. You can then print the consolidation worksheet, as it will contain only the information you want sent to the printer.

A third option involves using the Camera tool. This tool allows you to capture dynamic "pictures" of different areas of your worksheet. The Camera tool is not available, by default, on any of Excel's ribbons. Instead, you need to add it to the Quick Access Toolbar:

Display the Excel Options dialog box. (In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 or a later version display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
At the left side of the dialog box click Customize (Excel 2007) or Quick Access Toolbar (later versions of Excel). (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Quick Access Toolbar option in the Excel Options dialog box.

Using the Choose Commands From drop-down list, choose All Commands.
Scroll through the Commands list until you find Camera. (Oddly enough, it has a small camera icon to the left of the command.) Select the command by clicking on it.
Click the Add button. The Camera command moves to the right side of the dialog box.
Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

You are now ready to use the Camera tool. Follow these steps:

Select the cells or range of which you want a picture taken. For instance, select A1:C5, the first part of the area you want to print.
Click on the Camera tool. The mouse pointer changes to a large plus sign.
Change to a different worksheet, preferably a blank one.
Click where you want the top left-hand corner of the picture to appear. The picture is inserted as a graphic on the worksheet.
Repeat steps 1 through 4, but select the other range you want printed (E3:G5).

Now you can manipulate the two pictures the same as you would any other graphic—stretch, resize, crop, or move them; whatever. The picture is not really a picture, however, even though it behaves as one. Instead, it is dynamic, meaning that if the contents of the original ranges are changed, then what is shown in the picture changes, as well. You can also print the worksheet containing the camera pictures, and they will appear on a single page.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8189) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Multiple Print Areas on a Single Printed Page.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Superscripts in Custom Formats

When you create custom formats for your data, Excel provides quite a few ways you can make that data look just as you ...

Discover More

Incomplete and Corrupt Sorting

Using the sorting tools, on the toolbar, may result in some unwanted results, such as jumbled data. If this happens to ...

Discover More

Friendly and Informative Error Handling

When creating macros, it is helpful to know what is going on within the macro itself in case an error crops up. Here's ...

Discover More

How do you select multiple print areas in Excel for Mac?

Print selected cells Select the cells that you want to print. On the File menu, click Print. In the Print box, click Selection in the drop-down list. Click Print.

How do I change print settings in Excel for Mac?

With a document open on your Mac, choose File > Print. Click the Presets pop-up menu, then choose your preset. If you don't see the Presets pop-up menu, click Show Details. You see all presets available for that printer.

How do you change the print area on a Mac?

Choose File > Page Setup. Click the Settings pop-up menu and choose Page Attributes, then click the Format For pop-up menu and choose Any Printer. This sets the document's scale for all documents you print from this app. Choose File > Print.