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: Selecting a Paper Source.

Selecting a Paper Source

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 21, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Excel supports any printer supported by Windows. This is because Excel uses the features offered by Windows to print documents. Many of the features associated with formatting your document and printing are related to the type of printer you have installed and selected. For instance, some laser printers have different bins for different paper. Windows (and thus Excel) can instruct the printer to select paper from any of the available paper bins.

If your printer supports multiple paper sources, and you want to change the paper source used for your document (for instance, you have a bin that contains legal-sized paper and you want to print on it), you should follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Print option from the File menu. Excel displays the Print dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  2. Figure 1. The Print dialog box.

  3. Make sure the printer listed at the top of the dialog box matches the printer you want to use for your printing.
  4. If you want to change the printer, use the drop-down list to select a different printer.
  5. Click Cancel to close the Print dialog box. Even though you clicked Cancel, Excel remembers the change you made to the printer.
  6. Choose the Page Setup option from the File menu. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box.
  7. Make sure the Page tab is selected. (See Figure 2.)
  8. Figure 2. The Page tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  9. Click on the Options button. This displays the Properties dialog box for your printer (the one you selected in steps 2 and 3). This dialog box contains the different printing options available for your printer.
  10. Look through the tabs in the dialog box until you find controls that specify where paper should come from. Such a control may be named something like Paper Source, or you may see a Paper Source section with individual controls for the first and subsequent pages. Use the controls to specify where your paper should come from.
  11. Click on OK. The Properties dialog box closes and the Page Setup dialog box reappears.
  12. Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.
  13. Print your worksheet as you normally would.

If, in step 8, you don't see different options for paper sources, then your printer (or printer driver) does not support multiple sources.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2640) 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: Selecting a Paper Source.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Resetting Default Character Formatting

If you need to remove any explicit character formatting from some text, you'll want to commit the shortcut in this tip to ...

Discover More

Adding Tags to Text

The Find and Replace capabilities of Word can be used to add HTML tags to your document text. This is easier to do than ...

Discover More

Summing Based on Formatting in Adjacent Cells

It is easy to use Excel functions to sum values based on criteria you establish, unless those criteria involve the ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Out of Kilter Borders

Borders not printing properly? It could be any one of a number of reasons causing the problem. This tip provides some ...

Discover More

Printing Limited Pages from a Range of Worksheets

Need to print just a few pages from a group of worksheets? The easiest way to handle the task may be through a macro, as ...

Discover More

Printing a Short Selection

Need to print just a portion of a worksheet? It's easy to do if you follow the steps in this tip.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is two more than 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.