Print a worksheet in landscape or portrait orientation

By default, Microsoft Excel prints worksheets in portrait orientation (taller than wide). You can change the page orientation to landscape (wider than tall) on a worksheet-by-worksheet basis. If you always want to print worksheets in landscape orientation, you can create a template, change the page orientation from portrait to landscape, and then use that template as the basis for all future workbooks.

Note:  Because you can set page orientation on a worksheet-by-worksheet basis, it is possible to print some worksheets in a workbook in one orientation (such as portrait orientation) and other worksheets in the same workbook in the opposite orientation (such as landscape orientation). Simple set the orientation for each worksheet as appropriate, and then print the entire workbook.

What do you want to do?

Change the page orientation in the worksheet

Change the page orientation when you are ready to print

Create a template that uses landscape orientation by default

Change the page orientation in the worksheet

1. Select the worksheet or worksheets for which you want to change the orientation.

   How to select worksheets

   To select	Do this
   A single sheet	Click the sheet tab. If you don't see the tab that you want, click the tab scrolling buttons to display the tab, and then click the tab.
   Two or more adjacent sheets	Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down SHIFT while you click the tab for the last sheet that you want to select.
   Two or more nonadjacent sheets	Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down CTRL while you click the tabs of the other sheets that you want to select.
   All sheets in a workbook	Right-click a sheet tab, and then click Select All Sheets on the shortcut menu.

   Tip    When multiple worksheets are selected, [Group] appears in the title bar at the top of the worksheet. To cancel a selection of multiple worksheets in a workbook, click any unselected worksheet. If no unselected sheet is visible, right-click the tab of a selected sheet, and then click Ungroup Sheets on the shortcut menu.

2. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Orientation, and then click Portrait or Landscape.

   

   Note: If you don't have a printer set up, the Orientation option will appear dimmed, and you won't be able to select it. To resolve this, you must set up a printer. The option also appears dimmed when you're in the process of editing the contents of a cell. To resolve this, press ENTER to accept the changes or ESC to cancel the changes.

   Tip: To see the borders of printed pages more distinctly, you can work in Page Layout view (View tab, Workbook Views group).

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Change the page orientation when you are ready to print

1. Select the worksheet, worksheets, or worksheet data that you want to print.

2. Click the File tab.

3. Click Print.

   • Keyboard shortcut    You can also press CTRL+P.

4. In the Page Orientation drop-down box, under Settings, click Portrait Orientation or Landscape Orientation.

5. When you are ready to print, click Print.

Create a template that uses landscape orientation by default

To save time, you can save a workbook configured to print in landscape orientation as a template. You can then use this template to create other workbooks.

Create the template

1. Create a new workbook.

2. Select the worksheet or worksheets for which you want to change the orientation.

   How to select worksheets

   To select	Do this
   A single sheet	Click the sheet tab. If you don't see the tab that you want, click the tab scrolling buttons to display the tab, and then click the tab.
   Two or more adjacent sheets	Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down SHIFT while you click the tab for the last sheet that you want to select.
   Two or more nonadjacent sheets	Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down CTRL while you click the tabs of the other sheets that you want to select.
   All sheets in a workbook	Right-click a sheet tab, and then click Select All Sheets on the shortcut menu.

   Tip    When multiple worksheets are selected, [Group] appears in the title bar at the top of the worksheet. To cancel a selection of multiple worksheets in a workbook, click any unselected worksheet. If no unselected sheet is visible, right-click the tab of a selected sheet, and then click Ungroup Sheets on the shortcut menu.

3. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Orientation, and then click Landscape.

   

   Note: If you don't have a printer set up, the Orientation option will appear dimmed, and you won't be able to select it. To resolve this, you must set up a printer. The option also appears dimmed when you're in the process of editing the contents of a cell. To resolve this, press ENTER to accept the changes or ESC to cancel the changes.

4. Make any other customizations that you like to the workbook.

   Tip: If you want to customize a number of worksheets at once, you can temporarily group the worksheets, make your changes, and then ungroup them. To group the worksheets, right-click any tab at the bottom of the worksheet. On the shortcut menu, click Select All Sheets. In the title bar, you should see the name of the workbook followed by the word [Group]. Then, change the orientation to landscape or make any other customization that you want. To turn off the grouping, right-click any tab, and then click Ungroup Sheets (or just click another worksheet tab). Don't forget to ungroup the worksheets. When worksheets are grouped, whatever you do to one worksheet affects all other worksheets, which is probably not what you want.

5. Click the File tab.

6. Click Save As.

7. In the File name box, type the name that you want to use for the template.

8. In the Save as type box, click Excel Template (*.xltx), or click Excel Macro-Enabled Template (*.xltm) if the workbook contains macros that you want to make available in the template.

9. Click Save.

   The template is automatically placed in the Templates folder.

   Tip: If you copy any Excel workbook into the Templates folder, you can use that workbook as a template without saving it in the template file format (.xltx or .xltm). In Windows Vista, the Templates folder is usually C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. In Microsoft Windows XP, the Templates folder is usually C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.

10. To use the template to create a new workbook, do the following:

    1. Click the File tab.

    2. Click New.

    3. Under Available Templates, click My Templates.

    4. In the New dialog box, double-click the template that you just created.

       Excel creates a new workbook that is based on your template.

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