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
    2013-01-13T17:57:37+00:00

    If all of those prescribed keystrokes seem daunting, there is a VBA approach to a rogue last cell.

    Tap Alt+F11 and when the VBE opens, immediately use the pull-down menus to Insert, Module. Paste the following into the new pane titled something like Book1 - Module1 (Code), 

      Sub Reset_LastCell()

          ActiveSheet.UsedRange

      End Sub

    Tap Alt+Q to return to your worksheet and then Alt+F8 to open the Macros dialog and Run the macro. Remember to Save after the last cell reset.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-01-13T18:01:32+00:00

    Thanks for answering.  BUT:

    Hitting Ctrl+End takes me to the cell that is on the correct last row and one column to the right of the correct last column.  When I get to the ALT+E part of your instruction step 1, hitting D does nothing, and right-clicking and selecting Delete just terminates Excel.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-01-13T18:15:52+00:00

    If all of those prescribed keystrokes seem daunting, there is a VBA approach to a rogue last cell.

    Tap Alt+F11 and when the VBE opens, immediately use the pull-down menus to Insert, Module. Paste the following into the new pane titled something like Book1 - Module1 (Code), 

      Sub Reset_LastCell()

          ActiveSheet.UsedRange

      End Sub

    Tap Alt+Q to return to your worksheet and then Alt+F8 to open the Macros dialog and Run the macro. Remember to Save after the last cell reset.

    On the plus side: your instructions were clear, and the process proceeded just as you described it.

    On the minus side: this had no effect on the problem.

    I appreciate your help, but apparently the problem is something else.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-01-13T18:23:28+00:00

    ... When I get to the ALT+E part of your instruction step 1, hitting D does nothing, and right-clicking and selecting Delete just terminates Excel.

    This is disconcerting to say the least. I can imagine that the Alt, E keystroke combination may have been reassigned, but right-click, Delete should never terminate Excel. Could you attempt this in Safe Mode to remove any possibility of macros or add-ins causing conflict?

    About Office Safe Mode

    Excel can be started in Safe Mode within XP by tapping the Windows key+R then typing Excel.exe /safe into the Run box and clicking OK.

    If you have a chance, post a redacted copy of the workbook to a public file are like Skydrive or DropBox and post a link to the publicly shared workbook file back here.

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