Print Excel Sheets: Skip Empty Cells Easily

Printing Excel sheets can be a seamless task with the right strategies in place, particularly when it comes to managing empty cells. Whether you're creating reports, organizing data for presentations, or simply need to share information efficiently, knowing how to skip empty cells can significantly improve your document's readability and visual appeal.

Understanding Why You Need to Skip Empty Cells

Before diving into the how-to, let’s understand why skipping empty cells during print might be beneficial:

• Enhanced Readability: Printing unnecessary empty cells can clutter your document, making it hard to follow.
• Space Efficiency: Reducing blank spaces saves paper, ink, and storage space for digital copies.
• Focus: Empty cells, if printed, might distract from the key information you want to convey.

How to Skip Empty Cells in Excel for Printing

Here are several methods you can employ to ensure your Excel sheets are printed without those unwanted empty cells:

1. Using Page Setup to Avoid Printing Empty Cells

To begin skipping empty cells during the print process:

1. Select the range or entire sheet you wish to print.
2. Go to File > Print or press Ctrl + P.
3. In the Page Setup dialog box, navigate to the Sheet tab.
4. Check the box for Print area: and define the print range if needed.
5. Click on Set Print Area if you want to print specific ranges.
6. Go to Page Layout tab, click on Print Titles then go to Sheet tab and ensure that Print Gridlines and Print Row and Column Headings are unchecked if you don’t want these to appear in your printout.
7. Under Print, check Gridlines and Headings only if you want these features visible.
8. Select Print Preview to review your changes before printing.

💡 Note: You might need to adjust margins to ensure content is not cut off at the edges of the page.

2. Using Conditional Formatting

If you want to dynamically skip empty cells based on content:

1. Select the range you wish to print.
2. Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.
3. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
4. Enter a formula like =ISBLANK(A1) (replace A1 with the first cell of your selection).
5. Set the format to white font color to hide the text in empty cells.

This method hides empty cells when viewed but does not prevent them from being printed. Instead, it ensures they are not visually present in the printout.

3. Printing via VBA

For those comfortable with coding, using VBA can offer a more customized approach:

Sub SkipEmptyCells()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim lastRow As Long, lastCol As Long, startRow As Long, startCol As Long
    Dim printArea As Range
    Set ws = ActiveSheet
    lastRow = ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
    lastCol = ws.Cells(1, ws.Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
    startRow = 1
    startCol = 1

Set printArea = ws.Range(ws.Cells(startRow, startCol), ws.Cells(lastRow, lastCol))
For Each cell In printArea
    If IsEmpty(cell) Then cell.Clear
Next cell

printArea.PrintOut


End Sub

💡 Note: Be cautious when using VBA, as it can modify your data. Always ensure you have backups.

Conclusion

By employing these methods, you can tailor your Excel printouts to be more professional, concise, and efficient. Whether you’re adjusting the page setup, using conditional formatting, or leveraging VBA for precision, your ability to skip empty cells will enhance the clarity and impact of your printed documents.

Can I undo changes made by VBA code?

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Yes, you can undo changes made by VBA code if you have Excel’s undo stack enabled or if you manually backed up your worksheet before running the VBA script.

Will these methods work for multiple sheets?

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Yes, methods like conditional formatting and page setup adjustments can be applied to multiple sheets. For VBA, you might need to loop through each sheet or adjust the code accordingly.

What if I want to print empty cells but hide the gridlines around them?

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In the Page Setup under the Sheet tab, ensure that the “Print Gridlines” box is unchecked. This will hide gridlines around empty cells when printed, but the cells will still be visible if there are borders or content.