Printing Columns and Rows

Brent asked if it was possible to print a single column and a single row from a worksheet on the same piece of paper. (His boss wanted to see just the "crossed" information.) Unfortunately, there is no intrinsic way within Excel to specify to print only a single column and a single row. If you select both the column and row you want to print, and then choose to print just the selection, Excel still treats them as separate selections and prints them in that way. There are a couple of workarounds, however.

The first approach is to simply "hide" the information you don't want to print by setting its font color to white. You can do that by following these general steps:

1. Choose the first range of cells you don't want to appear on the printout.
2. Change the color of the text in those cells to white.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each range you don't want on the printout.
4. Print your worksheet as normal.
5. Select the entire worksheet (press Ctrl+A).
6. Change the color of the text in the cells to Automatic.

Another approach is to copy the row and column to a different worksheet. This is quick and easy to do using the keyboard (Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste), but there is a drawback. If the row or column you are copying contains formulas that rely on other areas of the worksheet, the copied data will not show the proper results. Thus, the best "cut and paste" approach would be as follows:

1. Insert a new, blank worksheet in your workbook.
2. Switch to the worksheet that contains the row and column you want to copy.
3. Select the column you want to copy and press Ctrl+C.
4. Switch to the new worksheet and select the column where you want it pasted.
5. Choose Paste Special from the Edit menu. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

6. Select the Values radio button, then click on OK.
7. Switch back to the worksheet that contains your original data.
8. Select the row you want to copy and press Ctrl+C.
9. Switch to the new worksheet and select the row where you want it pasted.
10. Again display the Paste Special dialog box, as you did in step 5.
11. Select the Values radio button, then click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3029) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Printing Columns and Rows.