Using Page Break Preview

Page Break Preview makes dealing with page breaks easy. One of the most frustrating things about Excel is that you do not see where the breaks will occur until you do a print process (Page Setup, Print Preview or Page Break Preview). If you fail to do one of these, it is likely that you will print your document and find that what you thought was only one page is two, that a chart is split across pages, etc.

Never print an Excel worksheet without checking for page breaks first!

Accessing Page Break Preview

You may either

• Choose ViewPage Break Preview
• or click on the Page Break Preview button in Print Preview

Excel Will Now Do This:

• changes the zoom factor so that more of the worksheet is visible
• displays the page numbers as watermarks on the sheets
• the current print range will be displayed with a white background, bordered by a solid blue line; nonprinting areas will have a gray background
• pages breaks will be shown by a blue, dashed line

What Can You Do?

• You can drag the blue borders to change the print range
• You can drag the dashed lines to change the page breaks
• In either case Excel will make the adjustments immediately
• You still have access to all of Excel's commands

To return to normal viewing, choose ViewNormal

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last updated August 13, 2003