Google Sheets is a great spreadsheet program for managing data. It has a variety of features that make it an ideal tool for workbooks and spreadsheets. Here are some tips on how to use Google Sheets:

  1. Start by opening the Google Sheets program and clicking on the File menu. This will take you to the File menu in the main window of Google Sheets.
  2. From the File menu, you can choose to open a file in your current working directory or to open a new file from a different location.
  3. If you are opening a new file, you will need to provide a name for the file and choose whether you want to save the file as a PDF or an Excel spreadsheet (.xls or .xlsx).
  4. If you are opening an existing file, you will need to provide information about the data in the sheet (e.g., name of column, number of rows). You can also provide comments about each row or column in your sheet by clicking on one of the comment buttons at the bottom of each cell in your sheet.
  5. To close Google Sheets, click on its close button at the top left corner of its main window.

While many spreadsheets are now shared digitally, there may be a situation where you need a physical copy. In Google Sheets, you can print a single sheet or an entire workbook and adjust the appearance in a few steps.

Visit Google Sheets, sign in if necessary, and open the workbook. If you want to print one particular sheet, select that one to make it active. Then, go to File > Print in the menu.

You should see your selected sheet and on the right side under Print, you’ll see Current Sheet. You can then adjust the print settings we’ll explain in detail below.

Notice you can also choose to print Selected Cells. Check out our how-to for printing a specific selection of cells in Google Sheets.

If you want to print an entire workbook or several sheets within it, you can have any sheet active when you click File > Print.

On the right side of the next screen below Print, select “Workbook.” You’ll then see a drop-down box appear beneath for Selection. By default, this is set to All Sheets. So if you want to print the entire workbook, you can leave this setting and move on to the adjustments.

If you only want to print certain sheets, click the Selection drop-down box. Check the boxes next to the names of the sheets you want to print and click “Apply.”

Adjust the Print Settings in Google Sheets

Once you choose which sheets you want to print, you have a variety of settings you can adjust like the paper size and orientation, margins, formatting, and more.

Paper Size: Use the drop-down list to select the size of the paper you’re printing on. You can also pick “Custom Size” and enter the height and width.

Page Orientation: Select either Landscape or Portrait.

Scale: If you need to scale the sheet to fit a particular way, use the drop-down list to select a Scale option. Normal is 100 percent, but you can also choose to fit the sheet to width, height, or page. Pick “Custom Number” to scale it to a certain percent.

Margins: You can use Normal, Narrow, or Wide margins to fit your sheet to the page as well. Select “Custom Numbers” to manually adjust the margins by dragging the lines on the sheet.

Set Custom Page Breaks: This link is available when you print a single sheet. You can click this option and on the following screen drag the dotted lines to create your page breaks.

Formatting: You have several options under Formatting that you can adjust. You can show or hide the gridlines and notes, select the page order if you have more than one page, and choose the horizontal and vertical alignment.

Headers & Footers: One handy print setting allows you to add details to your printed piece in the header or footer. Expand this section and check the boxes for the items you want to include such as page numbers, the sheet name, or the current date and time.

You can also edit the available fields for specific details or formatting if you like. Click “Edit Custom Fields” and then use the areas in the header or footer on the next screen to choose what you’d like to display.

Another option in the Headers & Footers section is to repeat frozen rows or columns. This lets you display those on all pages you print. Check the box next to Repeat Frozen Rows, Repeat Frozen Columns, or both. If an option is grayed out, then you don’t have any frozen rows or columns in your sheet.

Download the File From Google Sheets

After you make your adjustments and are ready to print, click “Next” on the top right.

You’ll then receive your sheet as a PDF file. Depending on the browser you use and your settings, the PDF may download automatically, or you may be prompted to open or save the file.

Once you have the PDF, simply print it as you normally would on your computer.

If you’d like help printing from other Google applications, take a look at how to print a Google Slides presentation or a Google Doc with comments.