SOLVED

Unable to remove print area from Excel worksheet

Copper Contributor

Have tried PAGE LAYOUT>PRINT AREA>CLEAR PRINT AREA to no avail

Previous versions of Excel offered a REMOVE PRINT AREA tool but I couldn't find one in 365

Thank you

15 Replies

@Sergei Baklan 

 

As noted in original post, this didn't work.

@idarow It's strange that you can not clear the current print area. But, I trust it is like that for you. Or you perhaps have multiple sheets selected? I have read that this can also cause issues with clearing print areas.

 

In stead of trying to clear a print area that is wrong, you can perhaps select the entire sheet and set that as the new print area. This should over-ride the previous print area.

Screenshot 2020-03-23 at 17.30.32.png

@idarow 

Clear Print Area removes print areas. If that doesn't work try to repair your office app.

I do not have multiple sheets selected.
I tried your advice and selected the entire sheet as the print area, but I still had the dotted lines where Excel broke the sheet into printable pages.
Again, I was unable to clear this via the standard method.
What I finally did was COPY the entire sheet>
Opened a new sheet>
Selected the same range of cells as the original>
PASTE without formatting (WINDOWS KEY + V)
This did the trick. I suspect something was just messed up (or as computer people say, "corrupt") in that original sheet. In any case, I'm up and running.
Thank you all for your responses.
best response confirmed by Grahmfs13 (Microsoft)
Solution

I found a solution to this and posting in case it helps anyone.  In my case, my page setup was set to 100% of actual size.  Once I changed this to "Fit to 1 page" it allowed me to set a custom print area.  I'm guessing if it's set to 100% it won't allow it to shrink to the area you are trying to print on a page.

Would be nice for Microsoft to change this setting automatically whey you try to set a custom print area instead of just not working.

njdesign27_0-1634928348555.png

 

@njdesign27 this fix recently helped me, since I believe we were in the same situation: My Page Setup area in the Page Layout section of the Ribbon did not work. I found that Excel can't set or get page setup properties if a printer is not specified. To prevent this problem from occurring, install a printer driver on your computer. 

Once I selected a printer, I was able to manipulate the page layout. Thanks!

@njdesign27  I had the same situation where I was unable to clear the print area.  Also tried to set a new print area and then clear that one.  When I did, it reverted to the one I wanted to clear.  

Changing the Scaling to "fit to 1" got rid of my problem.  Still not sure where the problem is but it isn't bothering me now.

@Riny_van_Eekelen ...or you can select the entire sheet, click on [Page Layout], then click on [Breaks] then [Remove Page Break].

@idarow I also could not remove the obnoxious print area boxes by going to the Page Layout tab and choosing 'clear print area' from the Print Area selector button - BUT what DID work was going to File and going down to Print Area and clicking on Remove Print Area.   

@Riny_van_Eekelen I selected the entire worksheet then set the print area. Unfortunately, this did not clear the print area that I was trying unsuccessfully to reset.

My sheet was originally set to 90%, when I set it to fit to 1 page it initially appeared that the print area was cleared. Unfortunately, when I went back to set it at 90% the print areas were still there.
EXCELLENT! This one worked.

@idarow 

OK... I've been having this problem and there is a specific solution not yet mentioned.

 

The Print Area is in fact a defined and "named range" in the spreadsheet, so you need to delete the name.

 

To do this is easy:

  1. Open file you want to remove named print areas
  2. Navigate to the formula tab/ribbon
  3. Select "Name Manager"
  4. Select the print area [or named range] you want to delete
  5. Select "Delete"
  6. All done.

Hope this helps.

PJ

@njdesign27 This helped! Clearing my print area wasn't working. Thank you! 

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Grahmfs13 (Microsoft)
Solution

I found a solution to this and posting in case it helps anyone.  In my case, my page setup was set to 100% of actual size.  Once I changed this to "Fit to 1 page" it allowed me to set a custom print area.  I'm guessing if it's set to 100% it won't allow it to shrink to the area you are trying to print on a page.

Would be nice for Microsoft to change this setting automatically whey you try to set a custom print area instead of just not working.

njdesign27_0-1634928348555.png

 

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