Excel Basics:
Setup Margins

Step-by-Step: Setup Margins

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What you will learn:

what the margins are to set the sizes for margins in dialog to resize margins by dragging how the margins relate to the header and footer

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Start with: (budget.xls from the resource files)

Margins: Dialog

1. If necessary, open budget.xls and then open the Page Setup dialog . [File | Page Setup...]
    
2. Click on the Margins tab. Margin settings are in inches if Regional Settings/Options = English (United States). [See the earlier page] The Page Setup dialog does not tell you what the unit of measure is! It just gives the numbers. There is no place inside Excel to change the measurement system being used.
    
3. If necessary, change the margins to match the illustration:
   Top = 1, Bottom = 1, Left = .75, Right = .75, Header = .5, Footer = .5
   Center on page boxes not checked.
   

   

   If your computer uses the metric system, the default sizes are in centimeters, like:

   

4. Close the Page Setup Dialog.

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Margins: Mouse

1. Open the Print Preview with the toolbar button .  
    
2. Click on the Margins button in the toolbar. This button toggles on and off a set of dotted lines that mark the margins and the header and footer.
    
3. With the margin lines showing, move the mouse pointer over one of the dotted lines until it turns into the vertical resize shape.
    
4. Carefully hold down the left mouse button. On the Status bar there is a message about the line you are on and the margin it represents. 
    
5. Drag the mouse to change the margin sizes. Have some fun! 

         

   
   The default sizes for margins (in inches)

   Margins Error: If you set the Header larger than the Top, or the Footer larger than the Bottom,  or if your text size is too big to fit in the space, your header or footer may print on top of your data cells. In the illustration below, the header is my name, formatted to a large font size. Excel will not hide the misbehaving header or footer like Word does. Your header and footer will print, come what may! The Office Assistant may offer a tip about this problem, but it won't insist on your fixing it. If the top row or two of your spreadsheet happens to be blank, you won't notice the effect.

   
   Problem: The Top margin should be bigger than the Header! 

    The default left and right margin for the header and footer is always .75 " no matter what margins you choose for the rest of the page. Another strange "feature". 
    

6. Close Print Preview.

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Center on Page

To make small spreadsheets and ranges print more attractively, you can center the print area horizontally or vertically or both.

1. Open the Page Setup dialog again to the Margins tab.
    
2. Click on the checkboxes to center Horizontally and Vertically. 
   

   The preview document on the Margins tab moves to show the change. You won't notice this centering unless the range that is printed is smaller than the width or height of the page.

   The preview in the dialog is not a thumbnail of your actual document. 
    

3. Click on the Print Preview button to see the Budget sheet.  Can you see a difference?