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: Changing Orientations within a Single Printout.

Changing Orientations within a Single Printout

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 25, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


2

When Greg prints his workbook, he would like some worksheets to print in portrait orientation and some to print in landscape orientation. Greg knows he can print the worksheets one at a time, but he would like to print the workbook in one go. He wonders if there is some way to do this.

Actually, it is easier than one would think. Excel allows you to set the page parameters independently for each worksheet in a workbook. Thus, you can set some as landscape and some as portrait and later just print the whole workbook. Excel keeps track and orients the printing properly for each worksheet.

Here's the easy way to set orientation for a group of worksheets:

  1. Click the tab of the first worksheet.
  2. Hold down the Ctrl key as you click tabs of other worksheets you want to have the same orientation as the first worksheet. Each worksheet tab should appear "highlighted," indicating you are constructing a set of selected worksheets.
  3. Choose the Page Setup option from the File menu. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Page Setup dialog box.

  5. Specify the orientation you want to use for the selected worksheets.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Click on a worksheet tab different than the one that is currently selected. The tabs should go back to normal, indicating that you are no longer working with a selection set.

When you later want to print your worksheets, simply select the worksheets you want to print before doing the print or display the Print dialog box and specify that you want to print the entire workbook.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3784) 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: Changing Orientations within a Single Printout.

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

Converting Endnotes to Regular Text

If you have a document with lots of endnotes, you may need them converted to regular text so that they can be used ...

Discover More

Moving Part of a Footer Down a Line

Setting up a single footer line for your printouts is fairly easy. If you want to move part of the footer down a line so ...

Discover More

Seeing Where Bookmarks Are

Bookmarks can be great for referencing and finding portions of your document. If you want to easily see where the ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in deciphering complex technical topics. With this comprehensive guide, "Mr. Spreadsheet" shows how to maximize your Excel experience using professional spreadsheet application development tips from his own personal bookshelf. Check out Excel 2013 Power Programming with VBA today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Working With Multiple Printers

If you have multiple printers accessible to your computer, you may need a way to quickly print your worksheet on a ...

Discover More

Specifying a Print Tray for a Worksheet

If you need to modify where a worksheet is printed (meaning, which paper tray it should use), Excel doesn't provide a lot ...

Discover More

Collating Copies

When you print multiple copies of worksheets that require more than one page each, you'll probably want those copies ...

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 6 - 0?

2021-06-03 11:47:31

Hannah

Agree with previous comment from Rocco: it seems like it should work this way, and I seem to be able to set different orientations for different sheets within a workbook, but when I go to print multiple sheets with differently-set orientations, they all print the same way. This is also in Excel 2016. Is there a fix?


2020-03-28 11:39:12

Rocco

Yes. That's how I used to do it, but it does not work that way in Excel 2016. After setting different orientations of selected sheets, then choosing to print all of them, the orientation changes to align with one sheet. Is Excel 2016 incapable of printing different orientations in a workbook in one printing? A Google search indicates that others have this issue.


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.