Hui’s Excel Report Printer

Over a decade ago I was working on a very large and complex budget model, come to think of it I still am?

It involved 4 linked Excel workbooks, about 30 worksheets, all different, and multiple views of each worksheet.

There were regular Worksheets and Chart Sheets interspersed throughout.

Some of the Ranges had Outlined/Grouped Totals that were indented on some reports, but not on others depending on whom the various reports were going to.

It was a great budget model until you had to print a copy of it.

And of course the different levels of Managers all want different reports etc, etc.

 

The Solution

To solve this I developed a simple VBA routine which has evolved over the years to what is presented here.

The basic idea is to add a Printing Control sheet to your workbook.

This sheet has a list of print views, not Excel views, of various pages within the current workbook.

Each page can be setup as you wish and allows for a number of common parameters for each printed page.

Pages can be listed, multiple times if required, with different ranges or outlining selected each time

The Code handles Worksheets and Chartsheets, Normal and Named Ranges, Page Orientation, Page Size, Page Grouping and Headers/Footers.

As a user you setup the sheets as a list in the order you want them, with appropriate parameters.

The code then:

• Loops through the list,
• Obtain the parameters,
• Sets up the print page and
• Prints it.

You just need to sit back and wait for the printer to jam.

HOW DO I USE IT

Download the sample file here Excel 97-03, Excel 2007/10

You can use the sample file as is, for demo purposes or read on later where I describe how to use this in your workbooks.

Open the workbook and Goto the “Print_Control” worksheet.

Browse through the various Headings in Row 4 and field values below them.

Note that some of the Row 4 cells have comments in which explain what options are available.

Each field is described below:

No.

The Row No. in the list of page layouts available.

This has no use except when someone says the 5^th page should be…

Description/Header

A text field that is used as a Reminder of the layout of the Page Setup also serves as a Centred Header.

Status

Print = On

Don’t Print = Off

The code only prints the pages marked as On.

Sheet

The name of the Worksheet or Chartsheet you want to print

Area

The Range on the Sheet that you want printed

Ignored for Chartsheets.

Land/Port

Specify if the page should be printed Landscape or Portrait

Ignored for Chartsheets.

Chartsheets are printed in Landscape.

Pages Wide

How many pages wide should the Range be printed on

This is fixed at 1 for Chartsheets.

Pages Tall

How many pages tall should the Range be printed out on

This is fixed at 1 for Chartsheets.

Copies

How Many Copies do you want of that individual page.

Rows & Columns

If outline/grouping is used specify what level of Indentation should be used for the Rows and Columns.

0 – Leave as is

1 – Indent 1 level

8  – Indent 8 levels

The maximum indentation is 8

Ignored for Chartsheets.

Footer (Left)

A description field printed as lower left footer.

No. of Copies

This specifies the Number of Copies of the Whole Report you want

Print All “On” Areas

The Print All “On” Areas Button executes the code and prints out a number of copies of the report as specified in the various page setups.

The printing is done on the default printer on your PC,

Important: Ensure that the printer you want to use for the job is set as the default before you start Excel.

You can print to a PDF file by specifying your Adobe or other PDF Printer as the Default Printer.

I’m sorry, This doesn’t fix the printing multiple pages to multiple files when printing to PDF issue.

 

Warning ! I maybe old school but I still recommend saving before printing !

 

HELP

There is limited help built into the system, That’s what this Post is doing.

Some of the field headings have comments which show what values are acceptable in those fields.

HOW DO I ADD THIS TO MY WORKBOOK ?

To add this to your workbook, copy the Print_Control worksheet to your workbook

1. Open your workbook.
2. Open the Demo File
3. Copy the Print_Control worksheet by Right Clicking on the Print_Control tab, and copy to your workbook.
4. Run the VBA Code using the “Setup Print Control Named Formula” Button

That’s it.

All the code required for the printing is part of the Print_Control page.

 

HOW DOES THE VBA WORK ?

The following describes the VBA Code driving this worksheet.

To examine this goto VBA (Alt F11)

Select the workbook and double click on Sheet0 (Print_Control)

The code should appear in the right hand window

If you are unfamiliar with VBA it may be worth going through Chandoo’s Crash Course in VBA

There are 2 Subroutines and a Function in this system which are documented below

 

Print_Reports

This is the main subroutine that drives the printing

It is called by the Print All On Button and when finished returns the user to the Print_Control worksheet.

All the VBA code is in RED,

Comments and notes are in BLACK before the line or section they refer to.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

At the start of the Print_Reports subroutine, setup variables for later use

Option Explicit

Public Sub Print_Reports()

Dim PrintArea As Variant

Dim i As Integer

Dim j As Integer

Dim sht As Long

Dim Orientation As String

Dim NCopies As Integer

Dim PWide As Integer

Dim PTall As Integer

Dim Footer As String

Dim Header As String

Dim Sheets As String

Dim gRow As Integer

Dim gCol As Integer

Dim PaperSize As String

Dim msg As String

Dim tmp As String

Turn off the Automatic Calculation so that it is faster and isn’t as jerky

Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual

This loads the entire array of the Print_Control page into an array called PrintArea

PrintArea = Worksheets(“Print_Control”).Range(“Print_Control”).Value

This sets up a loop for the No of Total Copies of the Whole report

For j = 1 To [Copies].Value ‘Loop through the No of Copies

This sets up a loop for the to check each line of the Print Control area

For i = 1 To UBound(PrintArea, 1) ‘Loop through the print area

If the Column Status is On print using that line of settings

If UCase(PrintArea(i, 3)) = “ON” Then ‘When On is enabled Print using the settings

Extract the settings from the stored array, row i

Header = PrintArea(i, 2) ‘Set Header variable

Orientation = PrintArea(i, 6) ‘Set Orientation variable

PWide = PrintArea(i, 8 ) ‘Set Pages Wide variable

PTall = PrintArea(i, 9) ‘Set Pages Tall variable

NCopies = PrintArea(i, 10) ‘Set No Copies variable

gRow = PrintArea(i, 11) ‘Set Row Group Expansion

gCol = PrintArea(i, 12) ‘Set Column Group Expansion

Footer = PrintArea(i, 13) ‘Set Footer variable

Check paper sizes against the built in page sizes

If PrintArea(i, 7) = “A4” Then

PaperSize = 9

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “A3” Then

PaperSize = 8

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “A5” Then

PaperSize = 11

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Legal” Then

PaperSize = 5

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Letter” Then

PaperSize = 1

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Quarto” Then

PaperSize = 15

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Executive” Then

PaperSize = 7

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “B4” Then

PaperSize = 12

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “B5” Then

PaperSize = 13

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “10×14” Then

PaperSize = 16

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “11×17” Then

PaperSize = 17

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Csheet” Then

PaperSize = 24

ElseIf PrintArea(i, 7) = “Dsheet” Then

PaperSize = 25

Else

PaperSize = 9 ‘Defaults to A4

End If

Activate the relevant sheet

This checks that the sheet exists first

tmp = PrintArea(i, 4)

SheetExists(tmp) is a UDF that’s checks if the sheet exists and returns True or False

If Not SheetExists(tmp) Then

msg = “Sheet ‘” + PrintArea(i, 4) + “‘ not found.” + vbCrLf + “Check the sheets Name.”

msg = msg + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + “Processing will continue for remaining sheets.”

tmp = MsgBox(msg, vbExclamation, “Sheet not Found”)

Else

The sheet exists now process

Select the sheet

Application.Sheets(PrintArea(i, 4)).Select

Check if it is a Worksheet or a Chartsheet

If ActiveSheet.Type = -4167 Then ‘Its a worksheet

Turn off screen updating

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Select the relevnt area of the sheet

ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = PrintArea(i, 5) ‘Select the relevent Print Area of the Sheet

Set Outline levels

ActiveSheet.Outline.ShowLevels RowLevels:=gRow, ColumnLevels:=gCol ‘Set Outline Grouping

Apply print settings

With ActiveSheet.PageSetup ‘Set print settings

.PrintTitleRows = “”

.PrintTitleColumns = “”

.LeftHeader = “”

.CenterHeader = Header ‘User Defined Header (Shift to Left or Right as required)

.RightHeader = “”

.LeftFooter = Footer ‘User Defined Footer (Shift to Left or Right as required)

.CenterFooter = “”

.RightFooter = “”

.LeftMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.RightMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.TopMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(1.0)

.BottomMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.4)

.HeaderMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.FooterMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.3)

.PrintHeadings = False

.PrintGridlines = False

.PrintComments = xlPrintNoComments

.CenterHorizontally = False

.CenterVertically = False

.Draft = False

.PaperSize = PaperSize ‘ User Defined Paper Size

.FirstPageNumber = xlAutomatic

.Order = xlDownThenOver

.BlackAndWhite = False

.Zoom = False

.FitToPagesWide = PWide ‘User Defined No Pages Wide

.FitToPagesTall = PTall ‘User Defined No Pages Tall

.PrintErrors = xlPrintErrorsDisplayed

End With

Apply page orientation settings

If Orientation = “L” Then ‘User Defined Page Orientation

ActiveSheet.PageSetup.Orientation = xlLandscape

Else

ActiveSheet.PageSetup.Orientation = xlPortrait

End If

Turn Screen updating back on

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

Finished setting up Worksheet goto the Printing area

Else ‘Its a Chart page

Turn Screen updating off

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Apply print settings

With ActiveChart.PageSetup

.LeftHeader = “”

.CenterHeader = Header

.RightHeader = “”

.LeftFooter = Footer

.CenterFooter = “”

.RightFooter = “”

.LeftMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.RightMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.TopMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(1#)

.BottomMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.4)

.HeaderMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.1)

.FooterMargin = Application.InchesToPoints(0.3)

.ChartSize = xlScreenSize

.PrintQuality = 600 ‘Change to 300 for Excel 97-03

.CenterHorizontally = True

.CenterVertically = True

.Orientation = xlLandscape

.Draft = False

.OddAndEvenPagesHeaderFooter = False ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = False ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.LeftHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.CenterHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.RightHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.LeftFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.CenterFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.EvenPage.RightFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.LeftHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.CenterHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.RightHeader.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.LeftFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.CenterFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.FirstPage.RightFooter.Text = “” ‘Removed from 97/03 Ver

.PaperSize = PaperSize

.FirstPageNumber = xlAutomatic

.BlackAndWhite = False

.Zoom = 100

End With

Turn Screen Updating back on

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End If

Now Print the active sheet using user defined No. Copies

ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.PrintOut Copies:=NCopies, Collate:=True

End If

End If

Next i

Next j

Clear PrintArea array, just in case

PrintArea = Null

Turn Auto Calculation back on

Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic

Go back to the Print Control sheet

Application.Sheets(“Print_Control”).Select

End Sub

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The SheetExists Function

This is a Function that is used by the Print_Reports subroutine to check if a sheet exists.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Function SheetExists(SheetName As String) As Boolean

‘ This function Returns TRUE if the sheet exists in the active workbook

SheetExists = False ‘Set default value of SheetExists

On Error GoTo NoSuchSheet ‘Set error trapping such that if the sheet doesn’t exist it will exit

Check length of sheet name, if the sheet exists it will return a value, otherwise an error

If Len(Sheets(SheetName).Name) > 0 Then

The sheet exists so set SheetExists = True and exit

SheetExists = True

Exit Function

End If

NoSuchSheet:

The sheet doesn’t exists so use default SheetExists = False and exit

End Function

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The Setup_Print_Control_Named_Formula Subroutine

This is a simple subroutine that sets up the 2 named formula for use the first time a sheet is used.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Sub Setup_Print_Control_Named_Formula()

Setup Named Formula “Print_Control” which is the table of settings

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=”Print_Control”, RefersToR1C1:= _

“=OFFSET(Print_Control!R4C2,1,,COUNTA(Print_Control!R5C2:R24C2),COUNTA(Print_Control!R4))”

ActiveWorkbook.Names(“Print_Control”).Comment = _

“Used by the Print_Reports Subroutine”

Setup Named Formula “Copies” which is the No of Copies of the Whole Report

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=”Copies”, RefersToR1C1:= _

“=Print_Control!R26C13”

ActiveWorkbook.Names(“Copies”).Comment = “Specifies the No. of Copies for the Print_Reports Subroutine”

End Sub

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

NAMED FORMULA

The code relies on two Named Formulas

Copies:

=Print_Control!$L$27

Print_Control:

=OFFSET(Print_Control!$B$4,1,,COUNTA(Print_Control!$B$5:$B$24),COUNTA(Print_Control!$4:$4))

Automatically adjusts the Print_Control Named Formula for the number of Page Setup lines and Fields to be processed

If you have queries about how any of the above code works, please let me know in the comments below:

 

WHAT DOES THE ARRAY “PrintArea” DO ?

The print area array stores the values of the Print_Control range in a 2 dimensional array which represents the Print_Control range.

This is done for a few reasons, but simply it is faster as it results in less reading of the worksheet

It also allows more flexibility in the subsequent processing as all the data is in one area.

 

DOWNLOADS

Download the sample file here Excel 97-03, Excel 2007/10

 

WHAT’S NEXT

There are a number of parameters used in the Print Setup area which are not used or not used in the 97/03 version.

The code above is easily extended to include these if you desire.

One day when I have a spare moment (Most likely in 2025!) I will add the option for automatic incremental Page Numbers.

 

CLOSING

This code has saved, my staff and I, hundreds and hundreds of hours over the past decade whilst printing complex Excel workbooks.

This functionality was also one of the more requested issues from our poll of 3 months ago We Want Your Ideas!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have ?

 

Updates

I will be extending the functionality of this in the future and so if you have any suggestions, lets hear them in the comments below:

 

How have you tackled large print jobs ?

I look forward to your comments below:

 

Hui…

For a list of my other contributions at Chandoo.org please visit; Hui.