Find out how to view the print area in Excel to ensure only the data you need appears on paper, saving both time and resources.

Think of your Excel print area like a presentation slide deck for a big meeting—you only want the key points to show up when it’s time to deliver.

In an Excel worksheet, setting and viewing the print area lets you control exactly what appears on paper, so you’re only printing or showing the necessary data without extra clutter.

But if you’re unsure where the print boundaries are, it can be tricky to keep things clean and professional. This guide will walk you step-by-step through how to view the print area in Excel, helping you stay organized and ready to print or present with precision.

Using the Excel Print Preview Tool

Let’s consider you’ve already set up a print area in the Excel worksheet.

To get an idea about how the printed document will look like or to view the print area, press Ctrl + P.

The Excel Print Preview window will pop open.

The preview screen will exactly show the content to be printed according to the pre-configured print area.

Sometimes, Print Preview might indicate that the whole content will be printed, not just those in the print area. This can happen if the Ignore Print Area option in the Settings is selected.

To fix this, click on the Print Active Sheet drop-down menu and uncheck Ignore Print Area.

Now, Print Preview will show only the content within the print area.

Once you close the Print Preview and navigate to the worksheet, you’ll see a thin outside cell border around a certain content on the sheet. That’s the Print Area indicator.

It’ll now stay as is until you clear the print area or close and reopen the workbook.

Switching to the Page Layout View

Another way to visualize the print area is by using the Page Layout command in the View tab.

Navigate to the Workbook Views block in the View tab and click on the Page Layout command.

You’ll see multiple pages side by side with rulers.

The worksheet content within the thin outside border is the print area set for the current spreadsheet.

Now, if you revert the worksheet to the Normal mode, the print area indicator will still be there until you close the workbook.

Using the Page Break Preview

Another quick way to show the print area on the worksheet is by using the Page Break Preview tool.

To try it out, navigate to your worksheet and click on the Page Break Preview button in the Excel Status Bar.

Excel will only show the gridlines and content demarcated within the print area in a light background whereas the rest of the worksheet will be in a dark overlay.

The thick blue boundary around the content is also for the print area. You can click on it and drag it outward or inward to change the print area in real-time.

Using a Named Range

When you set a print area in your spreadsheet, Excel automatically creates a Named Range in the background. This object is named as the Print_Area Named Range.

So, to quickly highlight the printable area of the active worksheet, click on the Name Box drop-down arrow near the Formula Bar area. It’s in the upper left corner of the worksheet area.

Select the Print_Area object which immediately selects the print area. The printable cell range is highlighted as the default Excel data selection overlay, which is more prominent than the thin outside border, which is the default style for Print Area.

You can also use the Named Range tool to create and view the print area even without setting up the print area beforehand. It uses Excel’s capability to print the selected cell range on the active worksheet. So, when you highlight a Named Range and apply the appropriate print settings in the Excel Print Preview, it only shows the printable area.

Select the cell range that you want to include in a Named Range, click on the Formulas tab, and select Define Name in the Defined Names block.

You’ll see the New Name dialog box. Type the name for the Named Range into the Name field. Ensure you don’t use any space in the name. If needed, you can use the underscore character.

Now, simply click OK on the dialog box to set up the Named Range.

Click on the Name Box drop-down arrow and select the custom Named Range you’ve created, like Named_Range_1 in this tutorial.

Excel will instantly highlight the intended cell range for printing.

Press Ctrl + P to launch the Print Preview window.

Click on the Settings drop-down list and select the Print Selection option.

You’ll see only the selected cell range in the Print Preview.

In this method, you won’t see the Print Area demarcation around the selected cell range when you come back to the worksheet. It’ll instead show the default Print Area, which is a dotted outside border matching the document size, like A4 or Letter in the workbook level.

Using the Go To Dialog

If you don’t wish to the Print Area demarcation lines and yet want to see the currently set cell range for printing, you can use the Go To tool.

Simply press the Ctrl + G keys simultaneously to launch the Go To dialog.

Select the Print_Area object from the Go To table and click OK.

You should see the cell range selection intended for printing.

Using Excel VBA

If you frequently need to view the print areas of multiple worksheets in one or multiple workbooks, you can use an Excel VBA macro. You no longer need to remember manual steps to highlight the print area. You only need to run a macro and with the click of a mouse button, you can select the printable cell range.

Before moving on to the script, you must know how to use a VBA code to set up a macro. You can review this concise Microsoft Excel tutorial:

📒 Read More: How To Use The VBA Code You Find Online

Now, use the following script to create a VBA macro:

Sub HighlightPrintArea()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim printArea As Range
    
    ' Set the worksheet to the active sheet
    Set ws = ActiveSheet
    
    ' Check if the worksheet has a defined print area
    On Error Resume Next
    Set printArea = ws.Range(ws.PageSetup.printArea)
    On Error GoTo 0
    
    ' If no print area is set, exit the sub
    If printArea Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "No print area is set.", vbInformation
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    ' Select the print area
    printArea.Select
    
    ' Apply a thick outside border to the print area
    With printArea.Borders(xlEdgeLeft)
        .LineStyle = xlContinuous
        .Weight = xlThick
    End With
    With printArea.Borders(xlEdgeTop)
        .LineStyle = xlContinuous
        .Weight = xlThick
    End With
    With printArea.Borders(xlEdgeRight)
        .LineStyle = xlContinuous
        .Weight = xlThick
    End With
    With printArea.Borders(xlEdgeBottom)
        .LineStyle = xlContinuous
        .Weight = xlThick
    End With
    
    ' Notify the user
    MsgBox "Print area highlighted with a thick border.", vbInformation
End Sub

Once the macro is ready, hit Alt + F8 to bring up the Macro dialog box.

Select the HighlightPrintArea macro from the dialog and hit Run.

Excel will instantly look up and highlight the preconfigured print area in the active worksheet.

Conclusions

So far, you’ve learned how to view the print area in Excel in six intuitive methods, like the Print Preview tool, the Page Layout view, the Page Break Preview, Named Ranges, Go To dialog, and Excel VBA.

If this quick guide helped you learn a new Excel skill, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box. Also, if you know of any other ways to highlight cell ranges in a preconfigured print area, share it in your comment.