The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
SYMPTOMS
When you set a print area on a worksheet in Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh
Edition, the print area may be set incorrectly if the worksheet contains
any merged cells. Specifically, only part of a merged cell may be included
in the print area. As a result, when you print the worksheet, the printout
may not contain all of the information.
CAUSE
This problem may occur if you use either of the following methods to set
the print area:
- While a range of cells is selected, you type "print_area" (without
the quotation marks) in the Name box and press ENTER.
-or-
- In a Visual Basic for Applications macro, you set the print area by
using a line of code similar to the following:
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = Range("B2").Address
In this example, B2 is the address of a cell that is part of a merged
cell.
WORKAROUND
To prevent this problem from occurring, use any of the following methods
to set a print area:
- Instead of typing "print_area" (without the quotation marks) in the
Name box, point to Print Area on the File menu, and click Set Print
Area.
-or-
- If you are using a macro to set the print area, modify the code so
that it uses the Selection property instead of the Range property.
For example, if your code currently looks like this
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = Range("B2").Address
change it to the following:
Range("B2").Select
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = Selection.Address
-or-
- Make sure that the range referred to by the macro includes all of
the cells that have been merged, for example, if cells in columns B
through F have been merged:
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintArea = Range("B2:F20").Address
Using any of these methods ensures that the print area is set correctly.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products
listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem
and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it
becomes available.
MORE INFORMATION
The following steps demonstrate the problem described in this article:
- In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, create a new workbook.
- In Sheet1 of the new workbook, select the range B2:F20. On the
Formatting toolbar, click the Merge And Center tool.
NOTE: If the Formatting toolbar is not visible, on the View menu,
point to Toolbars and click Formatting.
- Select the merged cell.
- In the Name box, type "print_area" (without the quotation marks) and
press ENTER.
Note that the dotted line that borders the print area surrounds only the
original cell B2, not the entire merged cell. If you type a value in cell
B2, and then view the worksheet in print preview, nothing is printed
because the print area includes only the original cell B2.
To properly set the print area, select the merged cell. Then, point to
Print Area on the File menu, and click Set Print Area. Click OK to set
the print area. The print area includes the entire merged cell.
If you use a macro to set the print area, make sure that the macro uses
the Selection property rather than the Range property. Or, make sure that
the Range property refers to all of the cells that you merged.