Clearing the Print Area in MS Excel

You have learned in the past how to set a print area within a worksheet. This area is used to define exactly what range you want to print.

Sometime later, you may want to delete this print area. To clear up any confusion, I am talking about getting rid of the special area designation, not the information contained within that area.

Follow the steps below to clear the print area:

1. Select Print Area from the File menu. Excel displays a submenu.
    
2. Select Clear Print Area from the submenu.

If you are using Excel 2007, you clear the print area following the steps below:

1. Display the Page Setup tab of the Ribbon.
    
2. In the Page Setup group, click Print Area. Excel displays a menu containing two choices.
    
3. Select Clear Print Area from the menu.

There are other ways to clear the print area, too.

The steps below work in versions of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Select Name from the Insert menu. Excel displays a submenu.
    
2. Select Define from the submenu. Excel displays the Define Name dialog box.
    
3. Look in the list of defined names for one called Print_Area. This is the definition of your print area. If you do not see an entry by this name, there is no print area defined in your workbook.
    
4. Select the Print_Area entry and click on Delete.
    
5. The entry is removed, and your print area is now deleted.
    
6. Click on Close to dismiss the dialog box.

If you are using Excel 2007, then you can accomplish the same thing following the steps below:

1. Be sure the Formulas tab of the Ribbon is displayed.
    
2. In the Defined Names group, click Name Manager. Excel displays the Name Manager.
    
3. Look in the list of defined names for one called Print_Area. This is the definition of your print area. As above, if you do no see an entry by this name, there is no print area defined in your workbook.
    
4. Select the Print_Area entry and click on Delete.The entry is removed, and your print area is now deleted.
    
5. Click on Close to close the Name Manager.

Now you know several ways to accomplish the same task!

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