How to Configure Excel to Print One Page Tall by One Page Wide Without Centering

Excel's PL feature allows you to control the layout of your spreadsheet documents. One common requirement is to print the content of a worksheet in one page tall and one page wide format without centering the document. In this article, we will guide you through several methods to achieve this, including both through the ribbon interface and by modifying default settings.

Configuring Page Layout to Print One Page Tall by One Page Wide

When setting up your print preferences, you need to ensure that the document is not centered and that the print area is exactly one page tall and one page wide. Start by opening your Excel workbook, navigate to the PL tab, and click on the arrow at the bottom right of the PS group. This will open the PS dialog. Within the PS dialog, you can specify the print area settings directly:

Using the Page Setup Dialog

Upon opening the PS dialog, you will find the Paper Size and Layout section. Here, you can adjust the height and width settings to make sure they are set to one page tall and one page wide respectively, without centering the content.

Go to the Page tab within the PS dialog to specify that your document should not center the content and ensure the print area is set to the exact dimensions you require.

Alternative Method: Using Scale to Fit

Alternatively, you can achieve the same result using the STF option under the PL tab. Here’s how to do it:

Select the PL tab in the ribbon.

Click on the dropdown to the right of Width in the STF group. Choose 1 page to ensure the width fits the page perfectly.

Repeat the same steps for the Height dropdown, selecting 1 page to make sure the height is also adjusted accordingly.

Setting Default Print Preferences

Once you have configured your print preferences as desired, you might want to make these changes the default for all newly created workbooks or worksheets. This can be achieved by saving the customized workbook settings:

Setting Custom Template as Default

Save the modified blank workbook as Book.xlt in the XLSTART folder. This template will be applied to all new workbooks.

If you want the default setting to apply specifically to worksheets, save the modified template as Sheet.xlt in the same XLSTART folder.

Note: The location of the XLSTART folder can vary depending on your Excel version and license. If you cannot find it, you may need to use File Explorer to search for its location. It is recommended to save the default templates in both the XLSTART and XLSTART-W folders to cover all bases.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined above, you can easily configure your Excel settings to print one page tall by one page wide without centering the document. This approach ensures that your spreadsheets are printed in the exact dimensions you need, enhancing the clarity and readability of your documents.