Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 9, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Michael often copies worksheets within a workbook. This allows him to maintain the original worksheet and do his work on the newly copied worksheet. The one thing that doesn't copy from the source worksheet to the target worksheet is the print area. Michael would like a way to have the print area set in the newly copied worksheet after the copy is complete.
The answer depends on what you mean when you talk about copying worksheets. Let's say that you copy a worksheet in this manner:
This copies the contents of the source worksheet to the target worksheet, but it won't copy page settings, such as headers/footers, margins, and print areas. If you want to actually copy these items, you need to make sure you perform your copy using some variation of this procedure:
Figure 1. The Move or Copy dialog box.
The resulting copy of your worksheet includes any page settings, including any print areas defined in the worksheet.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12099) 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: Copying Print Areas when Copying Worksheets.
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