Preventing objects from being printed or why objects aren't printing

Excel 365
Using the standard Excel tools, you can prevent access to the workbook or protect it from editing. Protection of a sheet from editing does not forbid printing, for example, to a PDF file.

To protect your information or to save toner :) you can exclude certain cells or objects for printing.

Elements for printing in Excel 365

Prevent cells from being printed

To prevent certain cells from being printed, do one of the following:

  • Hide cells - the hidden cells on the spreadsheet aren't printed.

    To hide a row or column, right-click on its label and select Hide in the popup menu:

    Hide rows or columns in Excel 365

    Notes:

    1. You can hide multiple columns or columns: select them, right-click on the selection and do the same as for a single row or column.
    2. To unhide cells, select the rows or columns around the hidden, right-click on the selection and choose Unhide in the popup menu:
    Unhide rows or columns in Excel 365
  • Disguise cells by an object - cover these cells with any type of shape.

    To add a shape to the spreadsheet, on the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click the Shapes button:

    Shapes button in Excel 365

    Choose the appropriate shape from the Shapes list and position it in front of the cells.

  • Format cells to hide their information.

    See how to hide the cell values in Excel without hiding cells for more details.

Note: You can also hide the data by choosing the same fill color for the text as the background color (see more about fill and outline options in Microsoft). Be careful! Some printers can print such text as visible.

In the print preview, the formatted data are hidden:

Hidden cell data for printing in Excel 365

Prevent objects from being printed

To prevent objects on the worksheet (such as charts, Shapes, and SmartArt) from being printed, do the following:

   1.   Right-click on the object, then select Format ***... in the popup menu (or double-click the object to open the Format *** pane).

*** varies depending on the object. For example:

  • Right-click the picture or shape, then select the Format Picture... or Format Shape... in the popup menu:
    Format Picture in popup menu Excel 365   or   Format Shape in popup menu Excel 365
  • Right-click the chart area, then select Format Chart Area... in the popup menu (or double-click the chart border):
    Format Chart Area in popup menu Excel 365

   2.   On the Format *** pane, in the Size & Properties group, in the Properties section:

  • Select the Print object checkbox (selected by default) to print the object,
  • Clear the Print object checkbox to prevent the object from being printed.

For example:

  • to prevent printing of the picture, clear the Print object checkbox on the Format Picture pane:
    Hide picture for printing in Excel 365
  • to prevent printing of the chart, clear the Print object checkbox on the Format Chart Area pane:
    Hide chart for printing in Excel 365

Check in the print preview that both objects are hidden:

Hidden objects for printing in Excel 365

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