How to Set a Print Area in Excel

The video guide shows how to set a print area for an Excel worksheet, either through the Print Area button on the Page Layout ribbon, or through the Page Setup menu. As well as selecting the cells you wish to print using the mouse, you can also type the address of the cell range into the name box on the left-hand side of the formula bar. This normally tells you the selected cell's address such as A1. If you type A1:E10 directly into the name box, Excel will select and highlight a rectangle of cells from A1 to E10. You can then set the print area directly by clicking Print Area on the Page Layout ribbon.

It is possible to select a non-contiguous range of cells to be printed on an Excel spreadsheet such as 'A1:E5,F11:J15'. You can type the range directly, or you can use the selection tool in the Page Setup form and hold CTRL down when adding each new range.

The video suggests using Print Preview to check the selected range. Print Preview shows each printed sheet individually. This means if you have selected the range A1:Z100 then, by default, Excel will the split the print-out over several pages. That means you would not necessarily see the full print range displayed on page 1 of the print preview.

An alternative method for seeing the selected print range is to change the Workbook View to Page Break Preview from the View ribbon. Page Break Preview is designed to show you where each your printed document will split across different pages. Part of that is showing you which cells in your document are included in the print range. If a cell appears white in Page Break Preview, it is included in your print range. If it appears grey then it lies outside the printed range. The default zoom level in Page Break Preview is set below 100% so you can see more cells displayed on-screen.

By Ed Bolton, founder of Excel4Business Ltd. Last reviewed November 2026.