Print Utilities
This group covers the printing jobs Excel handles badly: aligning paper size and margins across dozens of form sheets, reprinting just the pages a jam ruined, producing a mirrored-margin PDF for two-sided binding, and batch-converting Word and Visio files to PDF.
It is aimed at whoever assembles the bound submittal — inspection records, method statements, as-built dossiers — where every page must share one margin standard and the final deliverable is a PDF for the client.
Commands in this group
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Set page margins | Set paper size (A4/A3), orientation and margins (mm) for every selected sheet, with Fit-to-Page by width |
| Print pages | Print individual pages of the active sheet: all, even, odd, or a list such as 1,3-7,10 |
| Mirror margins | Export the active sheet to a PDF with mirrored margins — even pages swap left ↔ right for binding |
| Sheets → PDF | Export each selected sheet to its own PDF next to the workbook |
| Word → PDF | Convert many .doc/.docx files to PDF with the same name, in the same folder |
| Visio → PDF | Convert .vsd/.vsdx files to PDF through the Microsoft Print to PDF driver |
Workflow: assembling a two-sided bound submittal
- Select the sheets to print: click the first sheet tab, then hold Ctrl (individual tabs) or Shift (a contiguous run).
- Run Set page margins. Choose Paper A4 or A3, Orientation Portrait or Landscape, then enter Margins (mm): Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Header, Footer. The defaults are 20 / 20 / 30 / 15 with 8 / 8 — the usual layout for a document bound on the left edge.
- Click Apply. The window stays open: select another group of sheets, change the figures, Apply again until the whole workbook is consistent, then Close.
- Check the result in Print Preview — page setup changes cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z.
- If the set will be printed two-sided and bound, open the sheet and run Mirror margins. A save dialog opens with the suggested name
MirrorMarginsOutput.pdf; the add-in exports every page (odd pages with the original margins, even pages with left ↔ right swapped) and merges them into a single PDF. - For an ordinary PDF, select the sheets and run Sheets → PDF: each sheet becomes
<workbook name>_<sheet name>.pdfin the workbook's folder. - For annexes written in Word and diagrams drawn in Visio, run Word → PDF and Visio → PDF, selecting many files at once; each PDF is written next to its source file with the same name.
- When a paper jam ruins a few pages, open that sheet, run Print pages, type the exact range to reprint, click OK and pick the printer.
Example
An as-built dossier holds 18 A4 portrait form sheets, 4 A3 landscape quantity summaries, 20 Word inspection records and 3 Visio diagrams.
| Step | Command | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Set page margins | 18 A4 sheets · Portrait · margins 20 / 20 / 30 / 15 mm |
| 2 | Set page margins | 4 A3 sheets · Landscape · margins 15 / 15 / 25 / 10 mm |
| 3 | Word → PDF | all 20 files in D:\Submittal\InspectionRecords |
| 4 | Visio → PDF | SiteOrganisation.vsdx, ConstructionNetwork.vsdx, LaydownPlan.vsd |
| 5 | Mirror margins | the 46-page method statement → MethodStatement_MirrorMargins.pdf |
In the mirrored file, pages 1, 3, 5… carry a 30 mm left margin while pages 2, 4, 6… carry a 30 mm right margin, so every inner edge is equally wide once printed two-sided and the binding holes never eat into the text.
Tips and caveats
- Set page margins affects only the sheets selected at the moment you click Apply; it also forces Fit-to-Page by width and horizontal centring, so a sheet that must stay at exactly 100% scale needs fixing in Page Layout afterwards.
- Sheets → PDF produces one file per sheet, not a combined booklet; for a single document use Batch Print with its combine option, or merge with PDF Manager. Existing files of the same name are overwritten without asking.
- Print pages accepts
A(all),E(even),O(odd) or a list like1,3-7,10; anything containing other characters, or a page number beyond the total, is rejected. - Only a printer whose name contains "Microsoft Print to PDF" switches Print pages into file mode, writing
Page_001.pdf,Page_002.pdf, and so on; other PDF drivers are treated as ordinary printers. - Mirror margins swaps left and right margins only — top, bottom, header and footer stay the same on every page. It exports from the open sheet and cannot take an existing PDF as input.
- Word → PDF needs Microsoft Word installed; Visio → PDF needs Microsoft Visio plus the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. Both write the PDF next to the source file, overwriting a same-named file.
- For workbooks synced through OneDrive/SharePoint, Sheets → PDF resolves the online path to the local folder before exporting — but still save the workbook first, since the PDFs land in its own folder.
- Hold ESC to stop early in Print pages, Mirror margins and Sheets → PDF; whatever was already printed or exported is kept.
- Print pages and Mirror margins need an active account; Set page margins, Sheets → PDF, Word → PDF and Visio → PDF work without a licence.
See also
- Batch Print — print a whole series through a driver cell, with an option to combine the PDFs.
- PDF & OCR — merge, split, rotate and OCR existing PDF files.
- Reference: Mirror margins — how the add-in exports and merges each page.
- Reference: Set page margins — every field and its default value.