Excel creates multiple .pdf files

[bfmuller]

I have run across an odd behavior of Excel 2003. (This is also true in Excel 2000). I use a printer driver type of .pdf converter (pdf995) and it works perfectly with Word.

I have a large workbook with many different worksheets. If I select several worksheets and print them to a printer, they print properly. If I select the .pdf generator as the printer, I get several separate files. All the worksheets are there, only some are in separate files.

This is the mystery: If all worksheets were each in their own .pdf file I would understand that is how Excel prints. But, some of the .pdf files contain more than one worksheet, each in its own page of the .pdf file. What I can't understand is why some are combined with others, and some are not. (needless to say, what I really want is one large .pdf file of all the selected worksheets)

When I select a bunch of worksheets, the word "group" appears in the bar at the top of the program, so I am sure I have selected and grouped the sheets.

i have tried other "Print to .pdf" programs, and all behave the same way, so I am sure it is Excel doing this.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks

 

[bfmuller]

Well, I found the answer. Under "Page Set Up" the pages that printed together had the "header and footer" settings the same. Those pages with the header and footer set to "none" printed in a different .pdf file. So, all I had to do was make sure all headers and footers were set the same, and the selected sheets all appeared in the same .pdf file.

This header and footer disparity came about because some of the sheets were copied from different workbooks that had their header and footers different. Since this workbook rarely got printed, nobody noticed the different headers and footers before now.

I hope this helps somebody else.

 

[arkusM]

I have had a similar issue when the print resolution was set differently on the different tabs.
This is a pain to fix (as far as I know) becauseI had to cange it for each tab, there did not seem to be a single document setting for this...

 

[davede]

Just solved the same issue as this that was resulting in multiple pdfs when selecting to print a group of worksheets.

had to change the dpi settings under page setup

followed this guide:

http://www.novapdf.com/kb/printing-an-entire-excel-workbook-to-a-single-pdf-file-135.html

worked for acrobat and pdf creator also.

Actually was very easy with Excel 2010. Just had to CTRL+ Click or SHIFT +Click to select all the sheets and then bring up the page setup dialog box.