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: Clearing the Print Area.

Clearing the Print Area

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 22, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

In other issues of ExcelTips you learn how you can set a print area within a worksheet. This special area is used to define exactly what range you want printed. At some point you may need to delete the print area. (By "delete" I mean to get rid of the special area designation, not the information contained within that area.)

To clear the print area, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Print Area from the File menu. Excel displays a submenu.
  2. Choose Clear Print Area from the submenu.

Pretty easy, huh? Well, there are other ways you can go about clearing the print area, as well. This is one that I like to use from time to time:

  1. Choose Name from the Insert menu. Excel displays a submenu.
  2. Choose Define from the submenu. Excel displays the Define Name dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Define Name dialog box.

  3. Look in the list of defined names for one called Print_Area. This is the definition of your print area. (If you don't see an entry by this name, there is no print area defined in your workbook.)
  4. Select the Print_Area entry and click on Delete. The entry is removed, and your print area is now deleted.
  5. Click on Close to dismiss the dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2963) 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: Clearing the Print Area.

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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