Printing certain areas of the spreadsheet

[data808]

Is there a way to make certain cells be visible with data entered into them when viewing the spreadsheet but have it not print? I would like to type directions into certain cells to help the user figure out what to fill out but I do not want it to print the instructions. I only want the data that the user types in to print.

Second question, is there a way to make borders visible when viewing the spreadsheet but not print as well? I am referring to cell borders that I specifically set for certain cells. I do not mean the gridlines that are grey by default when starting a new spreadsheet. I would like to add borders to some of the cells but I do not want it to print.

Thanks for the help.

 

[dreid1011]

For the first part, you can manually set the print area from the Page Layout tab. Not sure about the second issue. Will need to research that.

 

[data808]

For the first part, you can manually set the print area from the Page Layout tab. Not sure about the second issue. Will need to research that.

Thanks. Yeah I found the print area solution but when I do that, it will change the print preview because the margins I have it set at right now is accounting for every cell on the spreadsheet so when I set a print area is affects the print out not to be aligned the way I want.

I should mention that this is a template I made to fill out a bank deposit slip so that I do not have to write it out every time. So the margins have to be very precise to fit the measurements of the deposit slip which is a little piece of paper.

Is there any other way to be able to type into a specific cell and tell excel not to print what I type in that specific cell?

 

[jolivanes]

For non visible printing, set font color to white, print and back to automatic.

To keep things simple, copy the sheet, clear what need not printing, print sheet, delete same.

 

[data808]

For non visible printing, set font color to white, print and back to automatic.

To keep things simple, copy the sheet, clear what need not printing, print sheet, delete same.

I actually found this solution online too but it didn't work for me. I must be doing something wrong. I typed the word "test" in a cell. Then changed the font color to white but when I try to print it still prints it as black in print preview. Am I missing a step? I even tried messing with the background cell color but no change. Right now I have it set up to ignore whatever color the cell is because I had some cells with the background color yellow to highlight where the user will have to type and when I print, it would have a grey shade to it because it was picking up the yellow color of the cell so I turned it off.

 

[jolivanes]

Re: "still prints it as black in print preview."
Not when I try. Are there some other settings that would do this?

 

[data808]

Re: "still prints it as black in print preview."
Not when I try. Are there some other settings that would do this?

Not sure but its a really basic .xlsx file because I didn't make much changes.

So if you type in white font color does your print preview not show the values you typed in the cells?

 

[data808]

Re: "still prints it as black in print preview."
Not when I try. Are there some other settings that would do this?

Just found out what is causing the problem. Here it is:

In Page Setup, on the Sheet tab, select "Black & White".

This allows me to print without highlights showing in the cells. I have some cells highlighted to guide the user on which cells to type data into but this setting is messing up the white color font issue. It will automatically change the font to black in print preview even though its in white font color.

So I need another way around it. I just want to be able to type out instructions for the user to see but I don't want it to print. Seems so simple but Microsoft doesn't allow this.

What if I made an object on the spreadsheet cause I know you can create buttons and other things and have it not print. So maybe if I made an object and typed out instructions on it then set it to not print then that would work as well. What do you think?

 

[jolivanes]

I don't know what your sheet looks like so it's impossible to give a meaningful suggestion.
You could always copy the sheet as a temp sheet, change whatever needs changing, print that sheet and delete it.
Kind of a long way around but with today's computers no problem time wise.

 

[data808]

I don't know what your sheet looks like so it's impossible to give a meaningful suggestion.
You could always copy the sheet as a temp sheet, change whatever needs changing, print that sheet and delete it.
Kind of a long way around but with today's computers no problem time wise.

I figured out a work around to my problem. Thanks for the help.

I guess I should mention what I did to help others that have similar problems. I basically made another sheet with all the directions and to type into cells on the instruction sheet and have those values carry over into the sheet that will be printed. This way user types everything into sheet1 while also listing all instructions on what to do, then have values from sheet1 transfer to sheet2 in the specific format it needs to be to print properly. I also included a simple button for the user to click on sheet1 when don't and this button has VBA code behind it to always print 4 copies since thats how many we need.

Hope this helps someone that has a similar problem.