Unable to remove print area from Excel worksheet

[idarow]

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

[#2]

@idarow 

It's here

[#3]

@SergeiBaklan 

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

[#4]

@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.

[#5]

@idarow 

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

[#6]

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.

[#7 · Accepted 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.

[#8]

@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!

[#9]

@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.

[#10]

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

[#11]

@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.   

[#12]

@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.

[#13]

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.

[#14]

EXCELLENT! This one worked.

[#15]

@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

[#16]

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