unwanted extra blank pages in Excel 2010

Anonymous
2013-01-13T17:34:03+00:00

Sometimes, when I'm working in an Excel 2010 document, I'll click File | Print just to see the preview of what the document will look like (in terms of its division into pages) when it's printed.

Usually everything is as expected, but occasionally Excel will arbitrarily decide that my document has many extra blank pages at the end of it.

No amount of removing page breaks or deleting rows at the end of the document (or relaunching Excel or rebooting the computer) will correct this.  If I save the document as a .pdf file, the problem persists in the .pdf file.

Can anyone tell me what's going on and how to fix this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-01-13T17:45:10+00:00

It would appear you've run into the infamousLast Cell property of Excel. To verify the cell that Excel believes is the last relevant cell, you can use Ctrl+End. This will take you to the cell that Excel believes to the the outer extent of information. The cell may not contain any information but the row and/or column it is on either has information or had information at some point.

To reset theLastCell of a worksheet, select a cell that is one down and one right to the one you want to be the absolute extents of your worksheet (e.g. all the way down and right). For example, if you want Z99 as the newLast Cell, select AA100. Next, walk through these steps to completely remove extraneous information,

  1. PressCTRL+Shift+<right arrow>. Release and pressCTRL+<spacebar>. Release and pressALT+E then D or right click the highlighted columns and selectDelete.
  2. PressHome, then pressCTRL+Shift+<down arrow>. Release and pressShift+<spacebar>. Release and pressALT+E thenD or right click the highlighted rows and selectDelete.
  3. PressCTRL+Home to return to A1. ImmediatelySave or (if you don't trust your keystrokes)Save As to confirm the new Last Cell position.
  4. PressCTRL+End and you should be in theLast_Cell (e.g. Z99).

It might seem like a lot, but it takes a lot more time to type it out here than it does to actually do it.

Due diligence: There is the potential here to delete a lot of possibly relevant data and/or formulas. Make sure you have a backup copy!

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-26T11:17:25+00:00

    Simplest way is when printing to set up as print only active pages.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-28T15:57:08+00:00

    This totally worked for me - thanks!  I had over a million rows and a few thousand extra pages, these instructions worked perfectly and were easy to follow.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-24T01:07:32+00:00

    Hello Jeeped, Your instructios worked great!!! Thanks for taking the time to help!  I love the online support!  :) God bless.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-23T04:18:23+00:00

    Hi,  I did all these steps but it did not delete the extra pages.  When I use the Print Preview feature.  It shows all the extra pages 20, 21, etc. etc.  I don't even know how many pages are there.

    Thanks for all your help1

    @lpacguad;

    If you have additional (non-standard) cell or number formatting in the last row, you will need to use the Home tab's Editing, Clear Formats or Editing, Clear All as well. This should be done immediately after deleting the rows and/or columns. Something like,

    1. Select entire rows from bottom of data to bottom of worksheet.
    2. Delete
    3. Clear Formats
    4. Select entire columns from right of data to extreme right of worksheet
    5. Delete
    6. Clear formats
    7. Save worksheet

    That should get you the results you are looking for.

    Edit: added image on where to find Clear Formats

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