XL: Printing Entire Workbook Prints Hidden Sheets

ID: Q136261

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, if you print the entire workbook, all sheets are printed, including hidden sheets. This feature allows you to print hidden sheets without having to unhide and then re-hide them.

If you do not want to print all sheets, use any of the following methods. 

Method 1:   Manually select all the sheets that you want to print either by
            pressing CTRL and clicking the desired sheet tabs or by
            clicking the first sheet tab and pressing SHIFT and clicking on
            the last sheet tab to select all the sheets in between. On the
            File menu, click Print. Click the Selected Sheets option

Method 2:   Use the following macro to print all of the visible sheets in
            the workbook.
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Sample Visual Basic Procedure

   Sub Print_Visible_Sheets()
      Dim sht

      ' Turn off the screen redraw.
      Application.ScreenUpdating = False
      ' Loop through for all sheets in the workbook.
      For Each sht In Sheets
         ' If the current sheet is visible, then group it with the rest.
         If sht.Visible Then sht.Select Replace:=False
      Next

      ' Print all of the selected sheets.
      ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.PrintOut copies:=1
      ' Ungroup the sheets.
      ActiveSheet.Select
      ' Turn back on the screen redraw.
      Application.ScreenUpdating = True
   End Sub

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

Note that hiding a sheet is not a true form of document protection, because the sheet can be unhidden through the menu and there is no mechanism to keep someone from linking to or copying from a hidden sheet. One reason to use hidden sheets is to keep workbooks from becoming too cluttered.

Additional query words: 5.00 5.00c 7.00 

Keywords          : kbcode kbprg kbprint PgmOthr xlprint 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0c,7.0; MACINTOSH:5.0,5.0a
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: May 17, 1999