How do I print a whole excel file in colour when the default is mo

C@discussions.microsoft.com Chris C

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Jan 11, 2006, 11:45:03 AM1/11/06

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Our printer defaults are set to print all docs in monochrome.

On a multi sheet excel file, If I click print then choose entire workbook
and then change my print options to colour, it prints the first worksheet in
colour, and all the others in mono.

How can I get them all to print in colour?

Thanks

Gord Dibben

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Jan 11, 2006, 2:18:32 PM1/11/06

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Chris

Print options are sheet-related, not book-related.

First group the sheets by right-click on the first sheet tab and "select all
sheets".

File>Page Setup>Sheet. Uncheck "black and white".

Ungroup the sheets by right-click and "ungroup sheets"

Now File>Print>Entire workbook.

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

Chris C

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Jan 12, 2006, 2:54:02 AM1/12/06

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Thanks for your help.

The Black and White check box was not selected when I did this. It is on
the print server that we set the default to be mono, and it is within the
print settings that we change it to colour. Is there a way to apply this to
all sheets quickly without having to go into each sheet and do
file..print..properties to set each to colour before printing the workbook?

Thanks for the info it has been most helpful.

Gord Dibben

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Jan 12, 2006, 1:55:01 PM1/12/06

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Chris

"Group" the sheets as per my first post.

What you do to the active sheet will be done to all in the group.

Gord

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:54:02 -0800, "Chris C" <Chr...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

wjohnson

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Jan 12, 2006, 2:47:41 PM1/12/06

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With the print menu selected - Next to the "PRINTER NAME" there should
be a selection named "PROPERTIES" select it and under one of the
various tabs you should be able to select "COLOR" - my guess is that
the "PRINTER PROPERTIES box for color or monochrome, has the MONOCHROME
or box checked.

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wjohnson
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Chris C

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Jan 13, 2006, 3:08:02 AM1/13/06

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This is correct.

That is how I'm changing the print option to colour. We default this to
mono on the print server as a cost saving measure so people only print in
colour when required and not as the default.

My problem is that I can't get it to apply to all sheets in a workbook.
Just the current active sheet. Even after grouping them as Gord asked, this
still has no effect.

I'm starting to believe that this is an Excel 'feature'. We use Excel 2000,
so I'm not sure if this behaviour exists in newer versions.

Thanks for your comments.

Chris C

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Jan 13, 2006, 3:20:03 AM1/13/06

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Gord,

Thanks again for your comments.

Unfortunately, following your instructions has no effect for me. This is
what I did.

1. Right click on Sheet 1. Select All Sheets
2. File.. Print
3. Properties
4. Change to Colour
5. Press OK.

The 3 sheets in my excel doc now print, but the first one is in colour, the
rest are not. This is even backed up by the print preview. I've tried this
on HP and Lexmark printers so It's not a driver issue. Looks like an Excel
thing. We run Excel 2000 here so maybe it doesn't do this in a later version?

Thanks

Gord Dibben

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Jan 13, 2006, 12:27:05 PM1/13/06

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Chris

Try this.........

1. Select all sheets

2. File>Page Setup>Sheet

3. Uncheck "black and white"

I think that's where your problem lies.

Gord

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:20:03 -0800, "Chris C" <Chr...@discussions.microsoft.com>

Chris C

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Jan 16, 2006, 3:16:03 AM1/16/06

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Gord,

I have tried this. The check box was not checked. My prints still behave
in the same way.

dup

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Mar 21, 2006, 2:50:34 AM3/21/06

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Same problem for me.

I use Office 2003 SP2.

BizMark

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Mar 22, 2006, 12:05:01 PM3/22/06

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This is because Excel flushes all print-job specific settings between
sheets, even when in a group selection. This is evidenced in another
way that users of Adobe Acrobat will know. If you select a group of
sheets and print to PDFWriter, you get asked for a filename for each
SHEET (not just for one filename and then it prints all sheets to that
same file). Therefore, each sheet is being sent as a separate job,
just that Excel automatically sends all the jobs at once when in a
group selection.

However, there is no way to stop the Printer Preferences getting in the
way between the jobs - so whatever you have set over and above that in
Properties will only hold for the first sheet in the selection.

It's not a bug as such because that's what you would expect to happen
if printing the sheets separately anyway; it's just that Microsoft have
obviously never got around to making group selections spool to print as
if they were one job - probaby because there are too many counters,
pointers, indexes and handles calculated and incremented whilst
rendering one worksheet to the spooler to allow other worksheets to
follow on in the same job. Probably too demanding memory and resources
wise.

However, I agree that it is annoying. It is possible to write VBA
routines that use a load of SendKeys to access the printer properties
box, get to the settings required and change them (manufacturer
permitting), looping this after selecting each sheet in the book
individually to print, but it would be of no use posting an example
here for one printer, because for another model (even same
manufacturer), the whole SendKeys string will almost always need to be
different.

--
BizMark

dup

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Mar 23, 2006, 2:47:40 AM3/23/06

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OK

Thanks to you

But, is it normal that when I print 'Entire Workbook', only the first sheet
use the printing options that I have specified, and other sheet with default
printing options ?