How do I print Excel formulae?
Q
I’m hoping you can explain to me if and how the formulae embedded in an Excel spreadsheet can be printed out. This would save me having to keep looking back at some of my previous spreadsheets for relevant formula or formulae. I’ve flipped through loads of back issues and have seen nothing on this. Incidentally, I’m using Excel 2000 on Windows 7.
Keith Kiteley
A
Yes, you can do this. A method that will work in any version of Excel from the past two decades or so is to use the keyboard shortcut Control (Ctrl)+`. The tiny symbol after the plus is the grave accent, which on a standard PC keyboard sits on the key that’s just to the left of 1, above the Tab key (see screenshot right). This will prompt all formula-containing cells to replace their values with the underlying formulae. Then, just print your spreadsheet as normal. When you’re done, tap Ctrl+` again to restore the display of the values.
For readers using more recent editions of Excel, or a non-standard keyboard, the same mode can be invoked with a button on the ribbon menu. First, click to select the FORMULAS tab. Then, in the Formula Auditing category, click Show Formulas (see screenshot above). If you don’t see this, then extend the Excel window – because Excel reduces the number of the buttons to fit smaller windows.