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: Adding the Set Print Area Tool.

Adding the Set Print Area Tool

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 7, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you have the need to define different areas of a worksheet to print, you know that you can do so by simply defining different print areas in your worksheet. If you need to change print areas quite often, you may be interested in adding a tool to your toolbar that can do this for you. (Using such a tool is much quicker than continually using the menu commands to set a print area.) Follow these steps:

  1. Choose Customize from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Customize dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Commands tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.

  3. In the Categories list, make sure File is selected.
  4. In the list of Commands, scroll down until you see the Set Print Area command.
  5. Drag the Set Print Area command and drop it in the toolbar location where you want it to be available.
  6. Click on Close.

Now, when you need to set a print area, you simply choose the area on the screen and click on the Set Print Area button.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3035) 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: Adding the Set Print Area Tool.

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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