Clearing the Print Area

In other issues of ExcelTips you learn how you can set a print area within a worksheet. This special area is used to define exactly what range you want printed. At some point you may need to delete the print area. (By "delete" I mean to get rid of the special area designation, not the information contained within that area.)

To clear the print area, follow these steps:

1. Choose Print Area from the File menu. Excel displays a submenu.
2. Choose Clear Print Area from the submenu.

If you are using Excel 2007, you clear the print area in this manner:

1. Display the Page Setup tab of the ribbon.
2. In the Page Setup group, click Print Area. Excel displays a menu containing two choices.
3. Choose Clear Print Area from the menu.

Pretty easy, huh? Well, there are other ways you can go about clearing the print area, as well. This is one that I like to use from time to time. These steps work in versions of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Choose Name from the Insert menu. Excel displays a submenu.
2. Choose Define from the submenu. Excel displays the Define Name dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Look in the list of defined names for one called Print_Area. This is the definition of your print area. (If you don't see an entry by this name, there is no print area defined in your workbook.)
4. Select the Print_Area entry and click on Delete. The entry is removed, and your print area is now deleted.
5. Click on Close to dismiss the dialog box.

If you are using Excel 2007, then you can accomplish the same task in this manner:

1. Make sure the Formulas tab of the ribbon is displayed.
2. In the Defined Names group, click Name Manager. Excel displays the Name Manager. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Look in the list of defined names for one called Print_Area. This is the definition of your print area. (If you don't see an entry by this name, there is no print area defined in your workbook.)
4. Select the Print_Area entry and click on Delete. The entry is removed, and your print area is now deleted.
5. Click on Close to close the Name Manager.