How to Print All Excel Sheets at Once in Batch Mode

With Print Conductor, you can easily print multiple Excel files or single documents – faster than starting Excel.

Print Conductor can print commonly used XLSX and XLS workbooks and spreadsheets, including macro-enabled files (XLSM) and Comma Separated Values (CSV).

 

Print all, default or specific worksheets only

By default, Print Conductor prints all worksheets of each workbook. You can change it by using the Worksheet names setting:

Option	Effect
*all*	Print all worksheets contained in a file
*default*	Print default (active) worksheets only
My worksheet 1	Print a specific worksheet by worksheet name, e.g., My worksheet 1. You can add as many names as needed, each on a separate line.

Print only the default (active) worksheet

To print only the worksheet that was active last time when the Excel book was closed, find Worksheet names setting and enter *default* instead of *all*. 

Print only specific worksheets (by name)

To specify only the desired sheets of a workbook, just enter their names, each one on a separate line: 

To control which worksheets should be printed:

1. Go to Settings > Advanced;
2. Find Worksheet names under the Excel format section (start typing "Worksheet names" in the search bar);
3. Select the desired option next to Worksheet names;
4. Click OK.

Set scale mode

You may encounter an issue when the printouts have extremely small text and are uncomfortable to read. Or vice versa, a single spreadsheet may take too many paper sheets. In this case, check the scale modes in Print Conductor and use a proper option so that Excel worksheets better fit on printed pages. To do that, find the Scale mode setting in the Excel format section and use either of these options:

Option	Effect
Original (default option)	Print the workbook sheets at their actual size (as is).
Shrink	Shrinks the worksheet so that it fits on one page. It resizes only large pages and keeps small pages as they are. Use this option if: you want every sheet to fit the whole page rather than several pages.
Zoom level	Uses a percentage of the worksheet's original size. To better fit the printed pages, enter a percentage smaller than 100%. To enlarge a worksheet to fit the printed pages, enter a percentage greater than 100%. Use this option if: you want to fine-tune the scaling manually.

To print Excel sheets fitting whole paper sheets rather than a number of sheets, use the Shrink or Fit option.

Learn about other available Scale mode options

To set scale mode:

1. Go to Settings > Advanced;
2. Find Scale mode under the Excel format section (start typing "Scale mode" in the search bar);
3. Select the desired option next to Scale mode;
4. Click OK.

Print in landscape or portrait orientation

By default, page orientation in Print Conductor is set to As in document. That means, the page layout of the original file will be used during batch printing.

However, in most cases landscape orientation (horizontal layout) would be better rather than portrait (horizontal layout). If your worksheet has many columns – landscape is a better option. That's why you may need to switch the page orientation to Landscape. 

To change page orientation to Landscape:

1. Open the original document and select Landscape in Page layout > Page setup > Orientation (in Excel) or Format > Page… > Page (in LibreOffice):
   
   

   

   OR

2. Open Print Conductor Settings > Advanced > and change Page orientation to Landscape (it will apply Landscape to all documents in the List):

   

   OR

3. Right-click selected Excel files in the List of Documents, open Item settings... and change Page orientation to Landscape:
   

   

   Using Item settings, you can choose different page orientation for different files if needed.

Likewise, it's a good idea to set the Portrait orientation if your worksheets don't have many columns and a vertical layout would be better.

Print Excel sheet on one page

To print your spreadsheets the most compact way and using less paper so that they fit one page, we recommend using Shrink scaling option plus Landscape orientation – if there are many columns in your Excel files and Portrait orientation – if there are few columns. 

Print gridlines in Excel

Gridlines are the horizontal lines between rows and columns. By default, gridlines don't appear on a printed worksheet or workbook. You can switch them on/off by opening your sheets in Excel and checking the box next to Page layout > Gridlines > Print in the top menu. Then save your file(s), and Print Conductor will also apply this setting during the batch printing. 

To batch print Excel files with gridlines:

1. Open your worksheets/workbooks in Excel;
2. Check the box next to Page layout > Gridlines > Print (do it for every worksheet if needed);
3. Save the documents;
4. Batch print them via Print Conductor.

Print row and column headings (titles) on every page

Row headings are the row numbers to the left side of the sheet. Column headings are the letters above the columns on a sheet. Do you want Print Conductor to add them on top of every printed page? Simply turn on the Print headings setting. 

To batch print Excel files with headings:

1. Go to Settings > Advanced;
2. Find Keep headings under the Excel format section;
3. Check the box next to Print headings;
4. Click OK.

Print comments in Excel

If your woksheets contain comments (notes that are used for adding annotations or reminders in cells), you can print them too. By default, they are printed at the end of a sheet.

To batch print Excel files with comments (notes):

1. Go to Settings > Advanced;
2. Find Keep comments under the Excel format section;
3. Select the preferable option next to Keep comments;
4. Click OK.

Print a defined print area only

If you want to print only specific cells of a worksheet, you can define a print area that should be printed. To do it, use the Set Print Area setting in Excel. It can be handy when you don't want to print the entire worksheet, but just a part of it. Once your Excel file is saved with a defined print area, Print Conductor will apply this setting too.

To batch print Excel files with a defined print area:

1. Open your worksheets/workbooks in Excel;
2. Select the needed cells of a worksheet;
3. Go to Page layout > Print Area  and click Set Print Area (do it for every worksheet if needed);
4. Save the documents;
5. Batch print them via Print Conductor.

Split Excel files into worksheets when printing

If you apply some settings, but the output is not as expected, try enabling the Split worksheets setting. When it's on, Print Conductor splits the document into sheets and sends each one to the spooler as a separate print job. 

To split Excel files into worksheets:

1. Go to Settings > Advanced;
2. Find Split worksheets under the Excel format section;
3. Check the box next to Split worksheets;
4. Click OK.

Print multiple Excel files without Microsoft Excel

Print Conductor processes multiple Excel spreadsheets without any problem on its own – no additional software is required. It may use the API of Microsoft Excel 2007 SP2 (or a newer version) for print automation. But having Excel (or alternative Office software) installed on your PC is not necessary.

Batch print Excel files from the command line

If you are looking for a tool that can automate printing of Excel documents (XLS, XLSX, XLSM, CSV, etc.) from the command line, you are at the right place. With 2Printer, our CMD batch print utility, you can streamline document printing in a server environment so that users don't need to add or configure printing by themselves. 

You can configure everything from the command line interface (CLI) using the features described in this article – in regards to Excel format 2Printer Settings have the same functionality as Print Conductor:

To print multiple Excel files via command line:

1. Download 2Printer;
2. Locate your Excel files in a folder or a list;
3. Open Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and run 2Printer command according to syntax;
4. Press Enter.

Other features 

Other things related to Excel format that you can do with Print Conductor:

• Add a customizable text watermark to worksheets
• Add crop marks (trim marks) on page corners (to XLS or XLSX files)
• Print obsolete Excel XLS files blocked in Microsoft Office Trust Center by default
• Print Excel files received from "unreliable sources" (via the Internet, by email)

---

See also:

How To
Get other useful guides on using Print Conductor and see many other useful how-tos, solutions, tips & tricks on effective batch printing. You'll find out how to import & export files, manage print lists, configure document and page settings, set up service pages, and so much more.