Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Resetting Page Setup.

Resetting Page Setup

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 25, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Lori wrote concerning a problem she was having with Excel. It seemed that the page setup for every worksheet in every workbook had changed. Worksheets that previously printed on a single page no longer fit on one page, instead printing on two.

The most likely explanations for behavior such as this is that something has changed in relation to how you print your worksheets. I don't mean that you have gone in and changed your page setup—I mean that you have physically changed a printer on your system or that the printer driver used by your system has been changed. Making such changes can universally affect your worksheets.

It is also possible that the change is due to a change in your version of Excel. If you recently upgraded to a different version, then worksheets could be rendered differently by Excel than they used to be.

Unfortunately, the only way to solve this issue—regardless of the cause—is to manually go through each workbook and change the page setup information for each worksheet. It is time consuming, but the only solution available.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2578) 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: Resetting Page Setup.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

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. ...

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