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Question
Friday, June 20, 2014 4:22 PM
Hello,
We have a multi-sheet workbook with color graphs and charts that we would like printed in color. In order to print every sheet in color, we have to select each tab and set the print properties to color. If we do not, and print the entire workbook, the tab that we was last selected prints in color, but the others in mono. Selecting all tabs at the bottom and making the change to color also does the except same thing with first sheet as color, the rest in mono.I have checked in the page setup (sheet tab) to ensure that the "Black and white" box is not checked. The printer we use is on a print server and no I will not let the default be to color.
It takes a long time to print one of our workbooks in color. Any way around this?
All replies (8)
Monday, June 23, 2014 8:16 AM âś…Answered
Hi,
This is pretty much by design, print options in Excel are applied per worksheet:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2526211/en-us
When a new workbook is created, Microsoft Excel reads the default settings of the printer driver of the default printer. Most of the settings from the printer driver are applied as default print attributes to each worksheet in the new workbook.
For example, if the driver for the default printer is set to print in black-and-white, when the new workbook is created, each worksheet will also contain the black-and-white print setting as a default attribute and will print in black-and-white. However, if you select multiple worksheets to print and also select to print in color, only the first selected worksheet will print in color.
Resolution/Workaround:
1. With Excel save the workbook as a PDF file, and then print this file with some third-party software.
2. From the Windows Control Panel, install your physical printer twice with the same driver and port, but with different names and different printer properties:
- The default printer's properties should stay as they are (for example "Black and White" and "Duplex Print")
- The additional printer's properties should be the same except two properties: "Color Print" and "1-Sided Print"
- As Excel will only print the active worksheet in color and the other sheets will print in Black & White. You can select the first sheet and set the print to color then the next sheet and set to print in color. This would need to be done for each of the sheets that you want printed in color.
Regards,
Melon Chen
TechNet Community Support
Friday, December 16, 2016 3:31 PM | 1 vote
May I say, respectfully, this is a horrible design. I have this problem all the time and apparently so do many, many users. Are you listening to your customers? PLEASE FIX THIS! PLEASE LISTEN TO US! WE HATE THIS PART OF YOUR DESIGN! IT NEEDS TO CHANGE! PLEASE! Those of us who use spreadsheets all the time want this changed, isn't that enough to make the change?
Friday, May 26, 2017 8:59 PM
I have to print a spreadsheet with 50 tabs, and now I have to tell each sheet individually that it should be printed in color! This is ridiculous!
Thursday, June 15, 2017 7:08 PM
I totally agree! Please "undo!"
Thursday, June 15, 2017 7:08 PM
I totally agree! Please "undo"!
Thursday, June 15, 2017 7:09 PM
WHO thought this was a good idea??? Awful, awful design!
Friday, March 9, 2018 4:47 PM
Depending on the printer you have make sure you have the Excel Job Sheet checked.
Monday, October 14, 2019 10:37 AM
So I've ran into this same problem so I decided to look into these forums to see if there was a solution. Here we are using Excel 2016. I have a file with 20 tabs and need to print each one in color. You guys still are making us select each sheet to print in color instead of allowing us to print the entire workbook if we choose. Whoever thought this was a good idea apparently is the most inefficient user ever. You are wasting our time and its very frustrating that Microsoft Excel would allow this.