How do I set print margins in Excel?

Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Setting Page Margins.

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Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 27, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

In Excel, page margins are used to specify how much white space (blank area) should be left around the information in your worksheet. This is very similar to how margins are conceived and used in other programs, such as a word processor. Margins are used to provide a visual border for your printed page and an area where the page can be held or bound.

To set margins for a worksheet, choose Page Setup from the File menu. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box; you should make sure the Margins tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

There are four margins you can specify: top, bottom, left, and right. Each margin refers to the distance from the edge of the paper to where the information in your worksheet can be printed. Thus, a one-inch top margin means there will be one inch of white space at the top of each page of your printout.

If you include headers and footers in your page layout, the settings in the Header and Footer boxes allow you to indicate where they should print. Typically, the value in the Header field should be less than the value in the Top field, and the value in the Footer field should be less than the one in the Bottom field. In this way you will ensure that the header and footer appear within the margins specified at the top and bottom of the page.

At the bottom of the dialog box there are some check boxes that control the centering of your information on the page. Clicking your mouse on either the Horizontally or Vertically check boxes will make sure your information is centered in that direction. Notice that as you make changes to the margins or to the information centering, Excel shows you what your layout looks like in the Preview area in the center of the dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2842) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Setting Page Margins.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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Print margins indicate how much white space Excel 2010 places between the worksheet data and the edge of the page. The Normal margin settings that Excel applies to a new workbook have top and bottom margins of 0.75 inches and left and right margins of 0.7 inches. You also can specify margins for the header and footer and center your worksheet horizontally or vertically on the page to improve the appearance of a printed report.

In addition to the Normal margin settings, Excel enables you to select two other standard margins from the Margins button's drop-down menu on the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon:

Wide margins with 1-inch top, bottom, left, and right margins and 0.5 inches separating the header and footer from the top and bottom margins.
Narrow margins with top and bottom margins of 0.75 inches, and left and right margins of 0.25 inches with 0.3 inches separating the header and footer from the top and bottom margins.
Excel 2010 provides a few margin presets on the Margins drop-down menu.

You also can manually adjust the margins of a report either from the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box or by dragging the margin markers in the Print panel of Excel's Backstage view (press Ctrl+P and then click the Show Margins icon). To get more columns on a page, try reducing the left and right margins. To get more rows on a page, try reducing the top and bottom margins.

Follow these steps to adjust margins using the Page Setup dialog box:

On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click the Margins button and select the Custom Margins command from the drop-down menu.
You can also click the Page Setup dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of the Page Setup group. The Page Setup dialog box appears.
Click the Margins tab.
Adjust your report margins from the Margins tab in the Page Setup dialog box.
Enter the new margin settings in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right text boxes.

You also can use the spin buttons to change the margin settings in small increments.
(Optional) Select one or both Center on Page check boxes to center the data between the current margin settings.
Click OK.

You can click the Print Preview button in the Page Setup dialog box at any time to see how the changes you make affect the preview of your report.

If you select the Show Margins icon near the bottom-right corner of the Print panel in Backstage view, you can modify the margins by dragging margin markers. When you release the mouse button, Excel redraws the page, using the new margin setting. (You can also adjust column widths like this.)

Drag a marker to adjust its margin in the Print panel when the Show Margins icon is selected.

About This Article

About the book author:

Greg Harvey, PhD, is president of Mind Over Media, Inc. He is the author of all editions of Excel For Dummies, Excel All-in-One For Dummies, Excel Workbook For Dummies, and Windows For Dummies Quick Reference. He's also an experienced educator.