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Microsoft® Excel 97 Quick Reference

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Producing Output

Excel provides several methods of producing output for your data. After you preview your data and adjust the page setup options as necessary, you can send the data directly to a printer. You can print a selected range, a selected chart, or an entire worksheet. If you print the same area of a worksheet on a regular basis, you can define that range as a print area, and print the range without having to respecify the print area each time.

In addition, you can fax or e-mail your data from Excel, or publish your Excel worksheets on the Web.

Page Setup: Creating Headers and Footers

You can add information to the top and bottom margins of the printed page to help document your printed worksheets. You can include such information as the current date and time, the file name, and the current page number. Excel provides predefined headers and footers, and also enables you to create custom headers and footers.

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Header/Footer tab.

  2. Click the arrow beside the Header drop-down list to see the predefined header options; choose the desired header, or choose (none) if you do not want to display a header. Or if you want to create a custom header, click the Custom Header button and enter the desired header or footer information in the Left Section, Center Section, and Right Section text boxes; then click OK.

  3. Click the arrow beside the Footer drop-down list to see the predefined footer options and choose the desired footer, or choose (none) if you do not want to display a footer. Or if you want to create a custom footer, click the Custom Footer button and enter the desired header or footer information in the Left Section, Center Section, and Right Section text boxes; then click OK.

  4. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

TIP: Headers and footers automatically print one-half inch from the top or bottom of the paper, unless you change the header or footer distance from the edge of the page. Use the Header and Footer options on the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box to change these settings.

Page Setup: Fitting a Document to a Page

You can use Excel settings to proportionally reduce or enlarge the printed worksheet. Use the Fit To option if you want to scale the printed worksheet to a specified number of pages.

The Fit To option is frequently used when a portion of a worksheet prints on a second page and you prefer the entire worksheet to print on a single page. (See also "Page Setup: Reducing and Enlarging Printouts.")

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Page tab.

  2. In the Scaling area, select the Fit To option.

  3. If you want the worksheet to print on more than one page wide or one page tall (the defaults), change these options in the text boxes beside the Fit To option.

  4. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

Page Setup: Reducing and Enlarging Printouts

You can use the Adjust To option if you want to print the worksheet full size or scale the worksheet to a specified percentage of full size.

By default, a worksheet prints at 100% (normal size). If your printer is not capable of scaling the print job to fit the page, the Adjust To and Fit To boxes are unavailable. (See also "Page Setup: Fitting a Document to a Page.")

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Header/Footer tab.

  2. Enter the desired size in the Adjust To text box. If you enter a number smaller than 100, the page is reduced to that percentage of the original. If you enter a number larger than 100, the page is enlarged.

  3. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

Page Setup: Setting a Print Area

If you want to print a portion of an Excel worksheet rather than the entire worksheet, you first should define the area you want to print.

Steps

  1. Select the range of data in the worksheet that you want to print.

  2. Choose File, Print Area, Set Print Area. A dotted line indicates the selected print area in the worksheet.

  3. If you later want to clear the predefined print area, choose File, Print Area, Clear Print Area.

TIP: After you define a print area, you can click the Print button on the Standard toolbar to print that worksheet area.

(See also "Printing: Worksheet Data.")

Page Setup: Setting Manual Page Breaks

When you preview and print worksheet data, Excel automatically inserts page breaks for you. You can, however, insert and remove manual page breaks wherever you want.

Steps

  1. To insert a vertical page break, click the column heading just to the right of where the page break should appear. To insert a horizontal page break, click the row heading just below where the page break should appear.

    To insert both vertical and horizontal page breaks simultaneously, select the cell just to the right and just below where you want the page breaks to appear.

  2. Choose Insert, Page Break. A dashed line in the worksheet indicates the position of the page break.

To remove a manual page break, select a cell adjacent to the page break. Then choose Insert, Remove Page Break.

Page Setup: Setting Margins

By default, Excel prints a worksheet with 1-inch margins at the top and bottom, and 3/4-inch margins on the left and right sides of the worksheet. You can use the Page Setup dialog box to change these margins, if necessary. If your worksheet is small, for example, you may want to increase the margins or specify that you want the worksheet data centered on the page. In most cases, this will improve the appearance of the printed data.

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Margins tab.

  2. In the Top, Left, Bottom, and Right text boxes, specify the margins you want, in inches.

  3. If you want to center the worksheet on the printed page, select Horizontally and/or Vertically.

  4. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

Page Setup: Setting Multiple Print Areas

You can specify multiple print ranges in the worksheet, which Excel can then print by using a single print command. Use this technique if you need to create a single printed report from different areas of a worksheet. Each print area you select prints on a separate page.

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Sheet tab.

  2. Select the Print Area text box, then select the first range in the worksheet that you want to print. (If necessary, drag the Page Setup dialog box out of the way.)

  3. Type a comma (,) in the Print Area text box, and then select the next range you want to print. Select the ranges in the order that you want them to print.

  4. Repeat Step 3 until you have selected all the areas you want to print.

  5. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

TROUBLESHOOTING: When I select multiple print ranges, each range prints on a separate page. How can I print multiple print ranges on a single page? You can temporarily hide the rows and columns that separate the ranges and then print them as one print range (see "Hiding: Columns and Rows" in the section "Editing Workbooks"). Or, you can copy the ranges you want to print to another worksheet, and then print the copied data as a single print range (see "Copying: Cell Data" in the section "Editing Workbooks").

Page Setup: Setting the Orientation

If the worksheet you want to print is wider than it is tall, you may want to switch to a landscape orientation when you print. Choose Landscape orientation to print the worksheet across the long edge of the page. Use Portrait orientation (the default) to print across the short edge of the page.

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Page tab.

  2. In the Orientation area, select Portrait or Landscape.

  3. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

TIP If your printer can print using different paper sizes, you may want to print some worksheets on legal-sized paper (or another size paper, such as envelopes) rather than the standard letter-sized worksheets. Select the Paper Size option on the Page tab to access the available paper sizes for the selected printer.

Previewing a Workbook

Before you print a worksheet, you should preview it to see how the worksheet will look when printed. (See "Page Setup: Setting a Print Area" before you complete this task.)

Steps

  1. With the worksheet you want to preview active, click the Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar. The Preview window appears.

  2. Choose from the available buttons at the top of the Preview window. For example, click Setup to change page setup options, or click Zoom to zoom in on the worksheet.

  3. Click Close to return to the normal worksheet view.

NOTE: You also can access the Preview window by clicking the Print Preview button in the Page Setup dialog box or the Preview button in the Print dialog box.

Printing: Multiple Copies

Before you begin printing your worksheet, you can specify how many copies of the worksheet you want to print. If you want to print multiple copies of a multi-page worksheet, be sure to preview the worksheet before you print it.

You also can choose whether or not to collate the numbered pages in a worksheet when you print multiple copies of a worksheet. Normally, you will want to choose the Collate option, which prints all pages of a worksheet before it prints the worksheet again. If this option is not selected, the first page prints for all copies, then the second page prints for all copies, and so on. (See "Page Setup: Setting a Print Area" and "Previewing a Workbook" before you complete this task.)

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Print and then type the number of copies you want to print in the Number of Copies text box.

  2. Be sure that the Collate check box is selected; or, if you don't want your printouts to collate, deselect the Collate check box; then click OK to begin printing.

Printing: Repeating Titles

In a multiple-page printout, you may want to repeat row or column titles on each page to make the printout easier to read. If a worksheet is wider than one page, for example, you can repeat row titles along the left margin of each page. You also can repeat column titles at the top of each page of a multiple-page worksheet. (See "Page Setup: Setting a Print Area" before you complete this task.)

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Sheet tab.

  2. In the Print Titles area, select either the Rows to Repeat at Top check box or the Columns to Repeat at Left check box.

  3. In the worksheet, select the row(s) or column(s) of titles you want to appear on each printed page. The rows or columns you select must be adjacent.

  4. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

NOTE: If the rows or columns you specify as print titles also appear in the range you've selected as the print area, you may see two sets of the rows or columns when you print the worksheet. To avoid this problem, respecify the print area so that it doesn't include addresses for the row or column print titles. n

To delete the repeating titles if you no longer want to use them, choose File, Page Setup, click the Sheet tab, and then clear the Rows to Repeat at Top and Columns to Repeat at Left text boxes.

Printing: Row and Column Headings

For most worksheets you print in Excel, you don't need to print the row and column headings (the row numbers and column letters) with the worksheet data. However, you may want to use this option to help document a worksheet you created. You can, for example, display the formulas in a worksheet, and then print the data with the row and column headings so that you can immediately see where each of the formulas is located. This can prove to be a valuable tool for auditing worksheet formulas as well as documenting the worksheet. (See "Formulas: Displaying Formulas" in the section "Formula & Function Management" and "Page Setup: Setting a Print Area" in this section before you complete
this task.)

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Sheet tab.

  2. In the Print area, select the Row and Column Headings check box.

  3. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

Printing: Worksheet Data

After you've created a worksheet and have entered and formatted your data, you usually want to print the data and distribute the printouts to others. As described throughout this part of the book, Excel provides many printing features that enable you to enhance the appearance of your printouts. You should preview the worksheet data and adjust the page setup options as necessary before you actually print the worksheet. (See also "Previewing a Workbook.")

Steps

  1. Select the range of data in the worksheet that you want to print, and choose File, Print.

  2. In the Print Range and Print What areas, select the area you want to print. If you already selected a print range in Step 1 above, be sure to choose Selection in the Print What area, if necessary.

  3. Click Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

TIP: To begin printing the worksheet data immediately using the default print settings, select the range you want to print and then click the Print button in the Standard toolbar.

Printing: Worksheet Gridlines

You can choose to print both vertical and horizontal gridlines with your worksheet data when you print the data. Gridlines will print around each cell in the worksheet range, regardless of whether or not the cell contains data. This feature is useful when printing large worksheets with multiple columns and rows of numeric data, so you can more easily see which column and row headings apply to each number. (See "Page Setup: Setting a Print Area" before you complete this task.)

Steps

  1. With the worksheet open, choose File, Page Setup; then click the Sheet tab.

  2. In the Print area, select the Gridlines check box.

  3. Click Print Preview to preview the current print settings; then click Print if you want to print the worksheet now, or click Close to return to the worksheet.

NOTE: Do not confuse the on-screen display of gridlines in the worksheet with printed gridlines. Even if you see gridlines displayed in the worksheet, you still must select the Gridlines check box in the Page Setup dialog box in order to print gridlines.

TIP: If you only want to print vertical or horizontal lines (not both), or if you want to choose exactly where you want lines to appear in a printed worksheet, you should add borders or lines to the worksheet instead of gridlines. (See "Borders and Lines" in the section "Formatting.")

(See also "Hiding: Gridlines" in the section "Customizing.")

Publishing to the Web

Excel now enables you to publish your existing worksheet data and charts to the World Wide Web. You can use the Internet Assistant from within Excel to create an HTML-based Web page from your worksheet data or charts. If you want to collect information from those who visit your Web site, you can also set up an Excel form to compile the data. For additional information, search on "publishing data on the Internet" in Microsoft Excel Help.

Steps

  1. Open the workbook, and then click a cell within the data range that you want to convert to a Web page.

  2. Choose File, Save As HTML. The Internet Assistant Wizard appears.

  3. Follow the instructions provided in the Internet Assistant Wizard.

NOTE: If the Save As HTML command doesn't appear on the File menu, you need to install the Internet Assistant add-in program. Choose Tools, Add-Ins, then select Internet Assistant Wizard and click OK. If the Internet Assistant Wizard doesn't appear in the Add-Ins Available list, you may want to install the Wizard from the Excel 97 or Office 97 CD.

(See also "Internet: Browsing Web Pages" and "Internet: Creating Hyperlinks" in the section "File Management.")

Sending E-Mail from Excel

If you want several people to receive a copy of your workbook at the same time, you can send a workbook to them as electronic mail from within Excel. (See "Shared Workbooks: Setting Up" in the section "File Management," if you want to route a workbook to a group of people, one person at a time.)

To send Excel workbooks through electronic mail, you need to use either Microsoft Exchange (or another mail system compatible with MAPI) or Lotus cc:Mail (or another mail system compatible with VIM). For additional information, search on "electronic mail" in Microsoft Excel Help.

NOTE: To perform this procedure, you must have already installed electronic mail software and hardware.

Steps

  1. Your e-mail program must be open and running. Open the workbook that you want to distribute via electronic mail and choose File, Send To, Mail Recipient.

  2. If a Mail Login dialog box appears, fill in the data requested and click OK. The New Message dialog box appears; click the Address button.

  3. The Address Message dialog box appears. Type the information requested, and then click Done.

  4. Click in the text box of the New Message window and type your message. To send an Excel file or any other file along with the message, click the Attach button and navigate the folders in the Message Item Attachment dialog box until you find the worksheet or other file you want to send. Select the file, and then click Attach.

  5. The New Message dialog box appears again. Select the Priority of the mail (Low, Normal, or Urgent) and whether you want to be notified when the message has been received by the recipient(s). Click Send to complete the mailing.

NOTE: Depending on the e-mail system you are using, your messages may be sent immediately or on a scheduled basis. Many e-mail systems have a feature called an outbox, a send out folder, or something similar where you can check to see whether the message has been sent. Check with your e-mail administrator (if applicable) to better understand the mailing timing and the verification methods for your particular e-mail system.

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