Forum Discussion
Feature Request: Repeat Rows at Bottom of Printed Pages
Excel currently supports "Rows to repeat at top" (Print Titles), but there is no equivalent feature for repeating rows at the bottom of every printed page.
This would be useful for stocktaking sheets, picking lists, audit forms, inspection records and other printed worksheets where users need space for handwritten additions or notes.
Proposed enhancement:
Add a "Rows to repeat at bottom" option in Page Setup, similar to the existing "Rows to repeat at top" setting.
The specified rows would be printed at the bottom of every page, regardless of sheet length or filtering.
My current use case is stocktake reports generated from Power Query where counters need 3-5 blank lines at the bottom of every printed page to record items not listed.
2 Replies
For a stocktake run, I would keep the working sheet untouched and build a separate print sheet that pulls each row across with simple cell references, then inserts three to five blank rows after every block that fits on one page. Set manual page breaks on that print sheet to match those blocks, so the blank counting lines land at the foot of each page even when the source data refreshes. It is a bit of setup the first time, but it keeps the counting lines aligned without having to edit the source data after every refresh. Test it on a short run first and check the page count in Print Preview before printing the full batch, because a change in row height or scaling will shift where each page ends.
Until Excel has that option, the footer gets you closest, because it prints on every page no matter how many rows the query returns.
In Excel for Windows: Page Layout tab > Page Setup dialog launcher > Header/Footer tab > Custom Footer. Click in the Left section and type one line, for example:
Item: ...................... Qty: ........
Press Enter and repeat it for as many lines as you need. Five lines like that come to about 220 characters, and a header or footer holds 255.
Then on the Margins tab raise Bottom (we tried 1.9 inches with Footer at 0.3 on a 180-row list) so the lines print below the data instead of over it; the footer distance has to stay smaller than the bottom margin. It's page setup, so it survives every Power Query refresh. The catch is that footer lines are text, not cells, so no borders or column alignment.
For the request itself, Help > Feedback inside Excel is the route Microsoft gives for suggestions.
(Drafted with AI assistance and checked before posting.)
