Why is my printer not printing from Excel?

I forget how to do this PC stuff all the time, so I write about it to remember and hopefully help you out too.

Excel isn't printing your entire sheet? Read on to find out how you can fix it.

Excel Not Printing All Rows?

I received an Excel spreadsheet via email from a colleague, and I added two rows of data to the bottom of the page. I went to print the spreadsheet, but the whole page would not print out. Everything would print except the two rows that I added.

There are a couple of obvious options to fix this, but nothing I attempted worked. I tried "Page Set Up" and the "Adjust To" % settings, but that did not work. Since I only needed to print one page, I then tried the "Fit into 1 Pages Wide by 1 Pages Tall," which didn't work either. For the life of me, I could not capture and print out the data I wanted. I also tried highlighting the entire spreadsheet area and then checking "Print Preview," but that didn't help either.

Here is the solution that ultimately wound up working for me. Hopefully, this applies to your problem as well.

Step 1: Open Excel

Open your Excel spreadsheet. You may want to try the solutions I described in the third paragraph of the introduction first. If those don't work, continue to the next step.

Click on the "View" tab.

Step 2: Click "View"

Find the "View" tab at the top-right portion of the tab list at the top of the Excel interface and click on it (see image above).

Select "Page Break Preview."

Step 3: Click "Page Break Preview"

Then, look to the center-left side of the Excel interface. Just to the left of "Page Layout," you'll see "Page Break Preview" (see image above). Click on "Page Break Preview."

If you don't see "Page Break Preview," you probably see three tiny icons next to "Page Layout." Click the top icon that is just to the right of "Page Layout," and "Page Break Preview" will appear.

Determine the range of data you'd like to print.

Step 4: Position Your Cursor Over the Blue Line

The screen will change, and your spreadsheet page will appear smaller; the data will be surrounded by a solid blue border.

The blue border defines the region that will be printed. Each printed page is separated by a dotted blue line, and each page is marked (Page 1, Page 2, etc.). You might notice that the cell data that are not printing are outside of the Page 1 region.

You will want to expand this area so that the area that's not printing falls within the solid blue boundary.

Position your cursor over the dotted blue line that you want to expand. If your printer is missing cell data at the bottom of the page, position the cursor over the dotted blue line at the bottom of the page. If you are missing data at the side, place your cursor to the dotted blue line on the side. Your cursor will turn into an arrow that points in two directions.

Drag the dotted blue line to encompass all data you want to be printed on the page.

Step 5: Drag the Blue Line to Expand Area to Print

Then, drag the line so that the area that is not printing now falls within the boundaries of the solid blue line.

Step 6: Print Spreadsheet

Finally, go ahead and print as you normally would. The entire spreadsheet should come off the printer just as you hoped. I made a video on this below in case you're still having trouble.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

JMS on August 28, 2020:

Thank you so very much! Your help was much appreciated!!!

nicole on July 15, 2020:

thank you so much. this was very helpful. it was driving my co-worker and myself nuts.

Yousif on July 05, 2020:

Thank u so much, that was extra helpful.

Pauline on June 21, 2020:

You saved me! Thank you for this actually fixing my problem. As opposed to Excel help which sent me down a rabbit hole!

bebe reiza on February 28, 2020:

Thank yoooooo.. you have helped me

Penn on January 21, 2020:

Thank you but now the footer overlaps the text on some pages

Susan on January 07, 2020:

Thank You!!

Darlene on December 30, 2019:

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! Worked like a charm!! Wow!!

Frank on December 12, 2019:

Thank you!

Lillian on December 04, 2019:

Thank you!

Peter on November 15, 2019:

Thank you , I was driving myself silly over why my Excel sheet 2 would print page 1&2 , But my Sheet 1 would only print page 1 and not print page 2 . Your “Page Break“ guide sorted out my issue.

Josh on November 13, 2019:

Top man thank you!

Ana on October 25, 2019:

Thank you so much. I was desperately looking for a solution for this exact problem and after an hours search came across this. Perfect!

HUGO on August 07, 2019:

THANKS, GOOD JOB

Debbie Treadwell on July 17, 2019:

Love it - a perfect solution! Thanks for sharing.

Wert on July 09, 2019:

Yay it worked

tgreer on July 09, 2019:

You are a genius! Thank you!!

Tanner on June 10, 2019:

You're a god, thank you

Nathan on May 30, 2019:

Outstanding, thanks so much

Diana on April 02, 2019:

Thank-you, such a time saver!

Daniel on February 21, 2019:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This has plagued me for a long time!

Sami on February 19, 2019:

thank you so much , I been trying so hard

you solve it

BR

Jannette on February 07, 2019:

Omg thanks so much. It did work

LEKAN on December 31, 2018:

Thanks a million. It helped.

Erick on December 19, 2018:

thanks a myriad

KP on December 17, 2018:

ACE!! Stuck on this for about an hour, great help.

Glenn on November 26, 2018:

Awesome! Thanks...

Shelley on November 20, 2018:

Thank you! That helped.

Jenn on November 14, 2018:

Thanks, this really helped

Duane on November 03, 2018:

Thank you so much

Agua on September 25, 2018:

yes it worked

Edwin on September 18, 2018:

so helpful. thanks

Ash on July 24, 2018:

Thank you! Much appreciated.

YUSUPH JOHN on July 08, 2018:

worked, thanks for sharing

Cara199 on June 28, 2018:

Thank you!

Marko on June 13, 2018:

It works. Thank you!!!!

Sarah on June 07, 2018:

wonderful.. It really worked! Thanks

vivek on May 26, 2018:

but the problem is in my MS Excel I am unable to drag that dotted blue lines

Jim on May 10, 2018:

Thank you!

Sabina on April 24, 2018:

Thank you! You saved my day!

Mario on April 04, 2018:

Thank you so much for posting this and helping me retain my sanity.

Sheila on March 29, 2018:

Thank you! Worked like a charm!

Galif Hasan on March 28, 2018:

Thanks a lot. 3

karol Hall on March 18, 2018:

Thanks I had forgotten all about that formatting tool Been a while since I had to do any editing in excel

zafar khan on March 09, 2018:

thanks a lots

Margaret on March 08, 2018:

Thanks............worked perfectly.

Ayman O.elfadil on March 03, 2018:

thanks for the info

King on March 02, 2018:

This worked perfectly for me, thanks so much

A on February 28, 2018:

Very helpful! Thank you!

Karen on February 22, 2018:

Thank you!

Bill Burns on February 21, 2018:

Well done, [Turtle]Dog! Thanks so much!

Jan on February 15, 2018:

Very, very grateful (like so many others)!

Melody on January 31, 2018:

Thanks you so very much for this. It really helped me. I had the same problem and it was doing my head in. Thanks again

Nancy on January 26, 2018:

Thanks!!!

Taqi Jaffer on January 25, 2018:

V. Good!

My problem is resolved.

Thanks.

Brian on January 22, 2018:

Thanks - appreciate your solution

Stephanie on January 22, 2018:

Thank you!!!

Raul on January 18, 2018:

Thank you very much, was a great help

Caro on January 18, 2018:

Thank you! Saved my life!

Teresa Davis on January 17, 2018:

Thank you so much!!!

Harry on January 15, 2018:

Thank you this worked for me.

Judi on January 05, 2018:

Thank you so much for this! I added 7 new lines to a 3-page list, re-sorted alphabetically, and then the top seven lines wouldn't print any longer. I was truly flummoxed and increasingly frustrated. Your solution solved it!

Beth Scott on December 26, 2017:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was driving me crazy, that my client list kept leaving off the last four names! I did not try all of the things that you did but your solution fixed it!

Vicki on December 11, 2017:

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Rizwan on December 08, 2017:

Thanks a lot

Lawrence on December 07, 2017:

I am 85 years of age and while I was not quite around in the age of quill pens, I am certainly no computer guru. Nevertheless, I found a very simple solution to printing a one page spreadsheet. Having struggled with it for several days, it would either print over four pages or on one sheet but very small. My spreadsheet page was on Open Office so I went to select all and copy. I then pasted it into a text format instead of spreadsheet. It reproduced and printed perfectly and took about half a minute. Whether this would work on other types of spreadsheet I do not know but it solved my problem.

karen on December 06, 2017:

yup!

Brian on November 29, 2017:

Thanks so much, this worked perfectly.

Jazz on November 15, 2017:

Thank you, love you.

on November 02, 2017:

my excel 2007 (windows 7) are configured to be entered dd-mm-yy. In this excel sheet I have set the print area including date column , but nothing is printed and print comes as blank. Then I changed the format of all the cells as BOLD . now all the data cells are printed EXCEPT DATE COLUMN. in the first preview date column cells are there. but when I click print button the date column is not printed.

Joko on October 29, 2017:

Ooohhh... Thank You so much. This is really helpful for me this morning when starting my Monday.

Bob M on October 26, 2017:

This has been driving me crazy. I've been using spreadsheets since CPM and Lotus123. I had a page break by column.

Thanks.

Thankful on October 25, 2017:

Ha. This worked! Thank you!

glenn on October 25, 2017:

tried your suggestion for printing all of exel spreadsheet via view then page break preview then drag lines. my problem is half of the first column gets cut off even though I see entire document in preview. Unable to adjust the left border with the method you described. suggetions and thanks

richr on September 28, 2017:

Just wanted to give a BIGS THANKS your solution worked perfectly.

Laureen on September 27, 2017:

Thank you...your solution worked beautifully!

JoeyAlpha5 on September 27, 2017:

Awesome, This was extremely helpful

Remie on September 20, 2017:

Thanks for the video

JITENDRA RATH on September 18, 2017:

excel is not supported to print but word and every thing is printed. what can i do

Casey on September 15, 2017:

Thank you for the help!!

Kaui on September 03, 2017:

Thank you so much! Your solution worked wonders!

Aimee on August 23, 2017:

Thank you so helpful

Julianne on August 22, 2017:

Great solution but never required in prior Windows versions. Is there a way of eliminating this step for printing excel spreadsheets?

lindsey on August 15, 2017:

thanks!

Deborah Collins on August 11, 2017:

This worked perfectly. Thank you.

James on August 11, 2017:

Just what i was looking for. Thanks for the helpful tip.

Miss Willia,s on July 27, 2017:

thank you!!!!

Bob Fenton on June 20, 2017:

your a genius... thanks...

Priti Sumani on June 16, 2017:

Thanks.article solved my problem.

Denise on June 15, 2017:

Great instructions, worked like a charm. Thank you

New guy at firm on June 13, 2017:

Dude, this helped big time. Thank you!

ED on May 17, 2017:

It works

Kossi on May 10, 2017:

Awesome. Worked for me. Thanks for sharing

Melanie on May 08, 2017:

Thanks so much! So useful. I was going crazy since I had tried all of the first solutions and none of them worked.

Abhi on April 14, 2017:

Hello Sir

thanks for posting this video, cheers...

Mike on April 05, 2017:

Thank you soo Much! Easy step-by-step instructions!

Alisa on April 04, 2017:

This was great- thank you! I never had to do the page break view thing before. Suddenly, I do. Oh well- so glad you bothered to post!

Mo on February 16, 2017:

Thank you so much! That worked and solved my problem!!!

Rachel on February 10, 2017:

Thank you, blessed genius - that saved my Friday afternoon!

Dee on February 07, 2017:

Thank you, thank you!! This worked perfectly!

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