Out of Kilter Borders

Karl expressed frustration with a printing problem. It seems that if he printed a worksheet without borders turned on, it printed fine. If, instead, he printed with borders turned on, then the cell contents and borders would overprint just a bit.

There are several things to check. First, you should always check to ensure that you are using the latest printer driver, and that the printer driver is designed specifically for the make and model of printer you are using.

Second, increase the magnification (zoom) on your worksheet so you can see small details. Then, turn the borders on and display the worksheet in Print Preview. Go back to regular mode, and make any column width adjustments necessary to accommodate the borders. (Borders do occupy space; you may need to adjust column width to allow for them properly.)

If desired, you can use Format | Column | AutoFit to adjust the column width to whatever Excel thinks is necessary for the columns. (In Excel 2007 you display the Home tab of the ribbon and then click the Format tool in the Cells group. In the resulting choices, choose AutoFit Column Width.) If the printout will no longer fit on the desired number of pages after adjusting column width, you may need to adjust margins and other print settings to get just the output you want.