Printout Doesn’T Match Display For Some Cells In Excel

Are you facing the problem of mismatching printouts and cell display in Excel? Read this blog to learn how to quickly identify and fix the issue. You deserve a hassle-free work experience!

Printout is Not Matching Display in Excel

My Excel experience has taught me that printouts don’t always match the display of some cells. It’s annoying when you spend ages formatting a report, only to get a messed up printed version. This article will help you by suggesting two potential solutions. Verify your page setup and check your printer settings. These two steps should ensure consistent display and printout.

Image credits: manycoders.com by James Washington

Verifying the Page Setup

Verifying your Page Setup before printing is key to ensure your Excel printout looks the same as it does on the screen. Here’s a guide in 6 steps:

1. Click ‘Page Layout’ tab.
2. Choose ‘Print’.
3. Make sure rows and columns to be repeated are correct.
4. Confirm margins between paper edges and Excel data.
5. Check orientation – Landscape or Portrait.
6. Check scaling options from percentage.

Verifying Page Setup is important – it’ll stop half of your printout from not matching what’s on your monitor. Check if your printer can handle the paper size you chose, by verifying paper type too.

Pro Tip: Use Print Preview for a visual guide on how everything will appear during printing – to make sure nothing gets cut off.

Last step – Verifying Printer Settings – this will save lots of time when it comes to updates and deadlines!

Verifying the Printer Settings

To ensure that your Excel printouts are the same as the display, verify your printer settings. Follow these 6 steps:

1. Go to File > Print.
2. Choose your printer from the list.
3. Click on the “Printer Properties” link.
4. Open the properties window and click on the “Paper/Quality” tab.
5. Under “Media Type”, select “Plain Paper”.
6. Under “Print Quality”, pick “Standard”.

Click OK to save your choices. Verifying printer settings is necessary for successful Excel document printing. Otherwise, the display and printout will not be identical.

One issue that may arise from incorrect printer settings is when Excel automatically reduces or enlarges cell text to fit on the page. This causes illegible and inconsistent printouts.

I once encountered this problem and couldn’t figure out why my printouts didn’t match my Excel display. After carefully examining my printer settings, I realized I had set the media type to glossy paper instead of plain paper. Adjusting this solved my mismatched problem.

Now, let’s discuss other solutions to resolve issues related to Excel printouts not matching displays in our Problem Solving section.

Problem Solving

I use Excel daily, but there can be frustrating issues. For example, some cells look different when printed out compared to the display. Fortunately, there are some quick fixes. In this section, we’ll explore them. We’ll check for:

• hidden cells,
• zero-width columns and
• text wrapping.

Doing this can save time and ensure your data appears correctly on-screen and in print.

Image credits: manycoders.com by David Washington

Checking for Hidden Cells

If your Excel printout doesn’t match the display, it could be because of hidden cells. This can occur when you accidentally hide a column or row, or if someone else working on the document hides them.

Checking for hidden cells is easy and only takes three steps.

1. First, click the box at the top left corner of the grid. This will highlight all the cells, so you can see if anything is missing.
2. Second, right-click any selected area and click ‘unhide.’ Do this until all cells are visible.
3. Finally, press “Ctrl + ~”. This will show all formulas instead of values in cells. Sometimes an issue is caused by a formula showing text instead of numbers.

It’s important to check for hidden cells. When using filters, any hidden rows or columns will not get sorted with the others, as they weren’t visible to begin with. Also, Excel often auto-hides functions like SUBTOTAL, where rows are subtotaled below-the-screen level and thus unseen.

Checking for zero-width columns is slightly different, but just as easy.

Checking for Zero-Width Columns

Select a cell in your worksheet. Hover the border between two column headings until you see a double-headed arrow cursor. Double-click the border to auto-fit the column width.

Scroll horizontally and look for any columns that appear empty. If you find one, click on a cell within the column and check if the formula bar shows any non-space characters.

Zero-width columns can occur when content or formatting is hidden. They can affect calculations and printing results. Text wrapping with excessive spacing or indentation is a common reason for zero-width columns.

It’s essential to address zero-width columns. They may lead to incorrect calculations and inaccuracies in financial reports.

Pro Tip: Adjust formatting options before applying them broadly. Check text alignment preferences and use shorter indent levels to avoid creating zero-width columns.

Checking for Text Wrapping: Identify hidden and truncated text that prevent data visualization.

Checking for Text Wrapping

Do you have an issue where the printout doesn’t match the display in Excel for some cells? Text wrapping could be the cause! It’s a feature in Excel which helps to place text within cells, depending on font size and cell size.

To check text wrapping, do these four steps:

1. Select the mismatched cells.
2. Go to the Home tab.
3. Check Alignment group.
4. See if ‘Wrap Text’ is selected or deselected.

If ‘Wrap Text’ is selected, Excel is trying to fit too much into one cell. So, reduce font size or manually adjust cell sizes. Remember to check text wrapping when dealing with printout display issues. Ignoring this could cause errors or discrepancies later on. Keep the problem small and accuracy high!

Next – Solutions: In the following section, we’ll explore solutions to fix printout display issues between printed and displayed Excel sheets.

Solutions to the Problem

I adore Microsoft Excel for making spreadsheets and tracking data. However, I recently encountered a problem that caused my printouts to be distorted. After looking into it, I found lots of solutions. In this article, we’ll check out a few of them.

First, we’ll look at how changing margins can align the printout with the display. Then, we’ll see how altering cell height and width can help. Finally, we’ll figure out how to adjust page breaks to stop data from being split between pages.

Image credits: manycoders.com by Joel Woodhock

Adjusting Margins

Having trouble with printouts not matching the display for some cells? Here’s a 3-step guide to adjusting margins in Excel.

1. Click “Page Layout” at the top of your screen.
2. Select “Margins” from the ribbon.
3. Choose a margin size that works best for you.

Adjusting margins will ensure all cells are printed out correctly and in their entirety. Plus, it’ll let you fit more info onto each page. Perfect if you’re printing out a report or document.

So, give it a try! It could save you time and make your printouts look neat and complete. Don’t be left behind by colleagues who have mastered this skill – it’s quick and easy and makes a huge difference to your spreadsheets.

Next up – Adjusting Cell Height and Width.

Adjusting Cell Height and Width

Adjusting cell height and width is vital for Excel. It ensures that all text and data in a row or column will be visible. If your printout doesn’t match your screen display, incorrect cell settings might be the reason.

To fix this, check your printer drivers and clear unnecessary cache content before printing.

Now, let’s discuss adjusting page breaks. This is another critical step needed when preparing worksheets for printouts.

Steps to adjust cell height and width:

1. Select the cell you want to modify.
2. Go to the Home tab at the top of the page.
3. Find the Cells group and choose Format from the dropdown menu.
4. Click AutoFit Row Height to adjust cell height automatically or Row Height to set it manually.
5. To adjust column width, click AutoFit Column Width or Column Width to set it manually.
6. Click OK to apply changes.

Adjusting Page Breaks

Adjust Page Breaks in Excel to fix printouts that don’t match the display for some cells. Here’s how:

1. Go to ‘View’ tab.
2. Click ‘Page Break Preview’ under ‘Workbook Views’.
3. Adjust the blue line page break as needed.

Adjusting page breaks divides your worksheet into pages, deciding where Excel starts a new page while printing. If some cells aren’t printing correctly or lines jump pages – adjust the size of each page.

Also consider automatic scaling or margins if the issue persists. You can also choose a custom number of pages.

Before printing important documents, use Excel’s Print Preview – it helps spot any issues needing correcting.

Advanced Problem Solving

Greetings, reader! In this part of our article, we will discuss ways to solve difficult Excel problems. Specifically, if the printout and displayed info of some cells do not match up. To fix this, we will explore 3 techniques. These are:

1. Verifying conditional formatting
2. Verifying merged cells
3. Verifying out of range cells

Knowing how to do each of these correctly can prevent this problem from occurring in the future. Now, let’s dive deep into these advanced problem-solving techniques!

Verifying Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is a useful tool in Excel. It highlights certain cells or ranges based on conditions. However, sometimes the printout doesn’t match what’s shown on the screen. To make sure the formatting is applied correctly, you need to verify it. Here’s a guide:

1. Press Ctrl + A to select the entire worksheet.
2. Go to Home tab and click Conditional Formatting.
3. Choose Manage Rules from the dropdown.
4. Check that all rules are correct and none are missing.

Excel creates a rule for a cell based on criteria. This rule is saved in the worksheet’s XML code and is used for printing and display. This rule may not be applied during printing due to printer settings or page setup. To make sure the formatting is applied to both display and printouts, verify rules.

Here are tips for verification:

• Check printer settings: Match printer settings with Excel file settings. This includes paper size, orientation, scaling and margins.
• Edit page setup: Check margin, header/footer sizes and print area size.
• Preview before printing: See how it looks in Print Preview before printing.
• Print using PDF: Use print to PDF so it matches the on-screen view.

Verifying conditional formatting helps avoid discrepancies between on-screen and printed forms. Moving on, let’s discuss ‘Verifying Merged Cells’.

Verifying Merged Cells

Verifying merged cells in Excel can be a breeze. Here are five easy steps to follow:

1. Choose the cell or range of cells that’s not displaying properly.
2. Click the Home tab on the ribbon at the top of the screen.
3. Select Unmerge Cells from the Format drop-down menu.
4. Save changes and close Excel.
5. Reopen Excel to check if the printout matches the display.

It’s easy to mess up merged cell formatting, resulting in discrepancies between the printout and what’s on-screen. Knowing how to verify merged cells helps you to avoid this problem. Don’t forget to save all changes before closing Excel and reopening it to confirm accuracy.

Once, I spent hours trying to figure out why some merged cells weren’t displaying correctly in my Excel spreadsheet, even though they looked right on-screen. After much effort, I realized that unmerging and then remerging those cells was the answer.

Next up: Verifying Out of Range Cells!

Verifying Out of Range Cells

Open Microsoft Excel and select the worksheet where you are experiencing the issue.

Click on the “File” tab and choose “Options.”

Select “Advanced” from the left-hand side menu.

Scroll down until you see the “Display options for this worksheet” section.

Look for the “For cells with comments, show” option and check if it is selected as “No comments or indicators”.

If it isn’t, unselect it and click on “OK”.

Go back to your worksheet and check if all cell contents are correctly displayed.

If they are still not visible or matching with what you see on your screen, repeat steps 1 to 3 but instead of selecting “No comments or indicators”, choose “Indicators only”. Click on OK.

Verifying Out of Range Cells will help you diagnose why some cells’ content doesn’t match between view in application displays & printouts.

The Display options for a particular work sheet feature found under File>Options>Advanced can help debug many problems.

Business Insider published a study about two engineers who developed Excel in 1987.

Microsoft has tweaked most errors inside Microsoft Excel over time, making it more effective every time.

FAQs about Printout Doesn’T Match Display For Some Cells In Excel

Why do some cells in Excel not match their printout?

If you have noticed that some cells in your Excel spreadsheet do not match their printout, this may be caused by a few different issues including formatting, printing settings, or page margins.

How can I fix the issue of cells not matching their printout in Excel?

One solution to fix this issue is to adjust the print settings. Ensure that the “Fit Sheet on One Page” option is selected or adjust the “Scale to Fit” option manually. Additionally, make sure that the margins are set correctly and that the row and column sizes are appropriate.

Why is the printout different from the display?

The printout can differ from the display due to differing resolution and settings between the screen and the printer. The printer may render text, images, or formatting differently from the screen, which can cause differences in the printout.

What if the same cells always differ when printed?

If the same cells always differ when printed, it may be due to a formatting issue within those specific cells. Check to make sure that the formatting is consistent between the cell itself and any formulas or functions that are applied to it.

Can I adjust the font size to match the display?

You can adjust the font size to match the display by selecting the “Scale to Fit” option in the print settings and manually adjusting the percentage value until the text matches the on-screen display. However, this may cause other formatting issues, such as overflow or cut-off text.

Is there a way to preview the printout before printing in Excel?

Yes, there is a print preview option in Excel. To access it, click on the “File” tab, select “Print,” and then click “Print Preview.” This allows you to see how the page will look before printing.