Excel wants to print 1K pages for my 2 page spreadsheet!

Chiles4 · 1st May 2006

My wife just created a two-page spreadsheet in Excel. She went to print it and saw that over 1000 pages had spooled to the printer. I've had problems with this in the past where Excel did not understand where the actual end of my spread sheet was.

What am I missing here and how do I resolve this? If we don't grasp what's wrong here I'm sure this will happen again to us.

Gary

jdc071391 · 1st May 2006

Highlight what you want to print and print selection only, or in the print dialog, select which pages you want to print.

**PeteC** · 1st May 2006

More precisely select the area to be printed and go File > Print Area > Set Print Area.

**Steve R Jones** · 1st May 2006

Also, while in the spreadsheet hit END and then the HOME keys. THis will take you to the lower most right hand cell of the spreadsheet. You might have accidently create something in a cell in a row way down the sheet...

Chiles4 · 1st May 2006

Thanks for the replies.

Pete, shouldn't the default print area be the area encompassed by my spreadsheet data?

Steve, what if there is, for example, a blank space in cell way far below my spreadsheet? How do I rectify that?

Gary

**Steve R Jones** · 1st May 2006

You'd need to delete ALL unused rows and or columns down to the spot. Save and then re-open the spreadsheet.

Having one little digit typed in cell A40,000 for example will also make the file size into a HUGE file.

**PeteC** · 1st May 2006

Quote:

shouldn't the default print area be the area encompassed by my spreadsheet data?

In theory, yes, but maybe not always the case, especially under the circumstances Steve noted.

Set Print Area is the 'safe' route, IMO

**Miz** · 2nd May 2006

In Excel, go to File>Print and in the windows that opens, make sure "Entire workbook" is not checked and "Active Sheets" is checked.

**ReggieB** · 3rd May 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiles4

My wife just created a two-page spreadsheet in Excel. She went to print it and saw that over 1000 pages had spooled to the printer. I've had problems with this in the past where Excel did not understand where the actual end of my spread sheet was.

What actually printed out? Did your data print out on the first page, or did you get a lot of strange characters? If the later, I don't think the problem is your Excel set up but rather your print drivers.

Even if you print out a whole Excel spreadsheet, it would not be over a 1000 pages. However, I've seen Excel have a problem with drivers that causes it to send garbage to the printer. A few odd characters to each page.