OT: Excel advice

Stan in Oly, WA · Feb 10, 2017

I've gotten good advice here on simple ways to solve problems I've had with MS Excel. I'm hoping this problem has a similarly simple solution. My dog requires multiple medications daily. To stay on top of the schedule, I use a chart which I created on Excel years ago. All the information is entered in a simple grid (by selecting All Borders) of columns and rows. When I print this grid, it appears on the page with unused margins on all sides. This wastes space. Without these margins I could have wider columns and more rows. This would be an actual help. How can I extend my grid to the edges of the page?

Thanks, Stan

Billy NY · Feb 10, 2017

There's a way to do that, not sure what version you are using, but we use an older version at work and I use the custom margin setting to increase it to maximum. I know in MS word you can go to the very edge almost. I've forgotten more about excel over the last 20 years and now I wish I could recall a lot of it.

Ralph, Ohio · Feb 10, 2017

In older versions of Excel you go to "File" & "Page Setup" then adjust the margins.

Gary from Iowa · Feb 10, 2017

Can you right click on the column and drag it over? Been many years since I use Excel, but that comes to mine.

3000OH · Feb 10, 2017

You're talking about printing problems, is that correct? We don't have any of the older versions loaded anymore but here's how to do it in 2010: Highlight all of the cells you want to print. Click in the upper left corner of the first one you want, then drag the shading down across all of the cells. ** Don't hilite whole rows or columns ** Then, go to Page Layout in the top ribbon, click on it, then look for Print Area and click on it to drop down the choices. Click on Set Print Area. That's it. When you print, look in print options for Scaling and select what you want to do - No Scaling, Fit Sheet On One Page, etc.

Hope this helps.

3000OH · Feb 10, 2017

If you don't have 2010 but some newer or older version and my directions don't work, then use the MS Help function and search for Print Area or Set Print Area or something like that.

MarkB_MI · Feb 11, 2017

In addition to adjusting your margins, when you print use the scaling option "fit to page". (I'm not running Windows or Excel, so I don't recall exactly where this is.)

Stan in Oly, WA · Feb 11, 2017

Thanks, everyone. I used the information you provided here---Page Layout, Margins, Print Area, and Scaling (from the print setup menu)---and I was able to come close to having my grid fill the page. But only close. I wasn't able to get the perimeter of the grid to come to the very edges of the page, particularly on the right side, for some reason. Even with margins set at 0", the grid prints with a 1/8"(m/l) margin at the top, bottom, and left side, and a 1/2" margin on the right side. In this application it doesn't matter, but I was hoping to learn how to do it so that when something comes up that does matter, I'll know how.

Stan

MarkB_MI · Feb 12, 2017

Most printers won't print all the way to the edge of the sheet; an eighth of an inch is about as good as you'll get. And in Excel, when you scale to fit the page you'll always have one margin wider than the other three because it scales both X and Y dimensions to the same proportions.

OT: Excel advice

Stan in Oly, WA

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Billy NY

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Ralph, Ohio

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Gary from Iowa

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3000OH

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3000OH

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MarkB_MI

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Stan in Oly, WA

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MarkB_MI

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