When you use default Excel settings to print a multi-page Excel file that has row headers in the first column, readers will find it difficult to remember which information belongs to which row in the subsequent pages.
To make it easy for your readers to follow which information belongs to which row, it is important to set the column that has row headers to repeat on the left side of each page. These repeating row headers are also known as print titles.
When the print titles are set, the readers will be able to see which row headings or print titles apply to the information in the columns they see on the subsequent pages.
Print a specific column on every printed page
In this tutorial, I will show you how to locate the Page Setup menu in the Page Layout tab and define the column that you want to be repeated on the left side of each page.
Follow these steps to add print titles or row headers to the left of each page of your Excel file.
- In the Excel file that you want to print, click the Page Layout tab at the top of the window.
- Click the Print Titles button on the Page Layout tab.
- On the Sheet tab In the Page Setup dialog box that appears, click on the Collapse Dialog button at the end of Columns to repeat at left box.
The collapsed Page Setup – Columns to repeat at left dialog box will appear as follows.
- Click on the letter at the top of the column you want to be repeated on each page.
In this example, I have selected column A. See that the column reference $A:$A appears in the Columns to repeat at left dialog box.
- Click on the Collapse Dialog button again to go back to the full Page Setup dialog box.
- Click on the Print Preview button and scroll through a few pages to see what your printout will look like.
Scroll through a few pages to see that the left column repeats at the left of every page.
- After confirming that the column repeats at the left of every page, go back to the Page Setup dialog box by clicking on the back arrow.
- Click OK at the bottom of the Page Setup dialog box to conclude the configuration process.
Your spreadsheet file will now print with your selected column repeated on every page.
More information on setting columns to repeat on every page in Excel
In this tutorial, we have discussed how to repeat one column at the left of the Excel file, but you can follow the same steps to repeat many columns. You can click and drag to select many columns or you can input the values in the Columns to repeat at left box yourself.
In our example, the reference $A:$A repeats the first column. Reference $A:$B would repeat the first two columns.