Printing a Draft of a Worksheet

Excel allows you to print drafts of your worksheets. This can be very helpful in speeding up the printing process. When printing drafts, Excel doesn't include graphics or graphic-related items (such as gridlines) in the printed output. Instead, all you see is the text or numbers that make up your worksheet. To print a draft, follow these steps if you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Choose Page Setup from the File menu. You will see the Page Setup dialog box.
2. Make sure the Sheet tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Print area of the dialog box, click on the Draft Quality check box. If the check box is selected, Excel will print drafts of whatever is printed.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Excel 2007, then the steps are as follows:

1. Choose the Page Layout tab on the ribbon.
2. Click the small Page Setup icon at the bottom-right of the Page Setup group. You will see the Page Setup dialog box.
3. Make sure the Sheet tab is selected.
4. In the Print area of the dialog box, click on the Draft Quality check box. If the check box is selected, Excel will print drafts of whatever is printed.
5. Click on OK.

Remember that the exact way in which draft printing is implemented is, in large part, up to your printer. Don't be surprised if you get different results doing a draft print on one printer as compared to another.