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: Collating Copies.

Collating Copies

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 1, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you work where there is a good size copy machine, you already know what it means to collate something. With a copier, it means the pages you are copying are placed in complete sets which can be used right away. It is the same in Excel. If you have a worksheet that occupies five pages, and you are printing multiple copies, you can either print them collated or uncollated. When they are collated, they are in page 1–5 order for each of the five sets. If they are not collated, five copies of the first page are printed, then five of the second, and so on.

To control collating, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Print from the File menu. Excel displays the Print dialog box. (You can also just press Ctrl+P.) (See Figure 1.)
  2. Figure 1. The Print dialog box.

  3. Specify the number of copies you wish to print.
  4. Click on the Collate Copies check box. A check mark in the box indicates the copies will be collated.
  5. Click on OK. Your worksheet is printed.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3237) 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: Collating Copies.

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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