Printing Multiple Worksheets on a Single Page

Workbooks can contain all sorts of data. If you have a workbook that includes a number of worksheets, each containing only a small amount of data, you may wonder if there is a way to print the multiple worksheets on a single sheet of paper.

There are a couple of ways that you can approach a solution to this problem. The first is simply print multiple pages per sheet, using the capabilities of your printer driver. For instance, I have an older HP LaserJet, and the printer driver allows me to specify the number of pages to print per sheet of paper. If I wanted to print three or four single-page worksheets all on one piece of paper, all I need to do is follow these steps:

1. Choose Print from the File menu. Excel displays the Print dialog box.
2. In the Print What area of the dialog box, choose the Entire Workbook option.
3. Click the Properties button. Excel displays the Properties dialog box for the printer, with the Layout tab selected.
4. Set the Pages Per Sheet control to 4.
5. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
6. Click OK to actually print the worksheets.

Your printer may offer a similar capability to what is outlined here, but you may need to do some exploring through the printer's Properties dialog box to find that capability. Of course, printing this way can lead to some very small text on the printout, because the printer driver simply reduces each page to occupy a proportionate area of the printed page. If you want to reduce some of the white space, and thereby increase the size of the printed text, then you need to look for a different solution.

Many people, to consolidate what is printed, actually create a "printing worksheet" which contains nothing but references to the areas to be printed on the other worksheets in the workbook. These references can either be done through formulas referring to the data on each worksheet, or by using the camera tool in Excel. (The camera tool has been described in other issues of ExcelTips.)

For an automated solution of amalgamating multiple worksheets into a single worksheet, you can use a macro. The following macro will create a new worksheet at the end of your workbook and copy the contents from all the other worksheets into it.

Sub PrintOnePage()
    Dim wshTemp As Worksheet, wsh As Worksheet
    Dim rngArr() As Range, c As Range
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim j As Integer

    ReDim rngArr(1 To 1)
    For Each wsh In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
        i = i + 1
        If i > 1 Then   ' resize array
            ReDim Preserve rngArr(1 To i)
        End If

        On Error Resume Next
        Set c = wsh.Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell)
        If Err = 0 Then
            On Error GoTo 0

            'Prevent empty rows
            Do While Application.CountA(c.EntireRow) = 0 _
              And c.EntireRow.Row > 1
                Set c = c.Offset(-1, 0)
            Loop

            Set rngArr(i) = wsh.Range(wsh.Range("A1"), c)
        End If
    Next wsh

    'Add temp.Worksheet
    Set wshTemp = Sheets.Add(after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count))

    On Error Resume Next
    With wshTemp
        For i = 1 To UBound(rngArr)
            If i = 1 Then
                Set c = .Range("A1")
            Else
                Set c = _
                  ActiveSheet.Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell)
                Set c = c.Offset(2, 0).End(xlToLeft)  'Skip one row
            End If

            'Copy-paste range (prevent empty range)
            If Application.CountA(rngArr(i)) > 0 Then
                rngArr(i).Copy c
            End If
        Next i
    End With
    On Error GoTo 0

    Application.CutCopyMode = False ' prevent marquies

    With ActiveSheet.PageSetup     'Fit to 1 page
        .Zoom = False
        .FitToPagesWide = 1
        .FitToPagesTall = 1
    End With

    'Preview New Sheet
    ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.PrintPreview

    'Print Desired Number of Copies
    i = InputBox("Print how many copies?", "ExcelTips", 1)
    If IsNumeric(i) Then
        If i > 0 Then
            ActiveSheet.PrintOut Copies:=i
        End If
    End If

    'Delete temp.Worksheet?
    If MsgBox("Delete the temporary worksheet?", _
      vbYesNo, "ExcelTips") = vbYes Then
        Application.DisplayAlerts = False
        wshTemp.Delete
        Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    End If
End Sub

After the combined worksheet is put together, the macro displays the worksheet using Print Preview. When you close Print Preview, it asks how many copies of the worksheet you want to print. If you enter a number greater than zero, then that many copies are printed. Finally, the macro offers to delete the combined worksheet for you just before finishing.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3243) 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 Multiple Worksheets on a Single Page.