Don't Have MS Excel At Home Computer But Like To Print An Excel Report That Is Saved In Office Computer?

While taking print out you would have noticed an option called ‘Print to File’ in the Print dialogue box.

If ‘Print to File’ option is enabled, your computer will not send the printing information to Printer. It will convert the information into a file that can be read by any computer from DOS prompt.

Let us see how to create a print file. :-)

1. Open the workbook that you want to file (For example, the file name is ‘Sales’).
2. Select Print command from File menu.
3. Print dialogue box appears in your screen.
4. Select ‘Print to File’ option.
5. It prompts you a file name and file location.
6. The information like Text, Numbers with same Font, Font size, margins etc. are converted into a File.

You can find the generated file in the stored location. (This print file will have .prn extension).

Well, so far we have seen how to print a workbook into file. Now let us see how to get print out from the file.

1. Go to Start --> Run --> type "COMMAND" or "CMD" (without double quotes).
2. Go to the location where you stored the file.
3. Copy sales.prn lpt1 /b

copy sales.prn lpt1 /b

In the above syntax ‘Sales.prn’ is the file name. ‘Lpt1’ indicates your printer terminal and ‘/b’ indicates binary file.

This option helps you in many ways. Some of them are:

• This feature helps you to take print out of a workbook from any computer even if the computer is not installed with Microsoft Excel or MS Office applications.
• You need not worry about file size of a workbook. Whichever report you want, you can print it to a file and easily save it in your floppy or CD. Later you can take print out from another computer. This is because the file generated using ‘Print to File’ feature is so small in size.
• Once you saved a print file, you can able to print the worksheet without even starting excel program.
• Knowledge about this feature may help you while working on other applications.

(This feature is common for other applications. You can easily export the data from other applications and later import it into Excel).

• This saves your time, as you need not open your workbook every time and make necessary changes in Page Setup settings.

I hope you will make use of this feature in emergency situations where your computer is not connected to a Printer.

Want To Protect Your Worksheet Data?

Data in your worksheet can be moved, changed or deleted by any user. If you want to protect important details you will need to lock the cells. No user can edit locked cells without a valid password.

In Excel each cell has the option to lock data using a password. You can lock a cell, a group of cells, rows or columns.

First select all cells in your worksheet. There are two methods to select all the cells.

1. Press 'Ctrl' key and 'A' Key at a time.
2. Click ‘Select All’ button. (It should be a gray rectangle in the upper-left corner of a worksheet where the row and column headings meet).
3. Open Format Cell dialogue box. This also can be done by several ways.
4. Press 'Ctrl' key and '1' key simultaneously.
5. Select ‘Cells’ from 'Format' menu
6. Right clicking mouse, selecting ‘Format Cells’ from pop-up menu.
7. Click the last tab ‘Protection’ in Format cells dialogue box. (To know more about Format cells dialogue box please read previous postings).
8. Check the status of locked cells in the ‘Protection’ tab. If the option is checked or enabled then you will need to remove the check mark by clicking on it.
9. Click on 'Ok' or 'Enter' key on your keyboard.

Now the entire cells in the worksheet are not protected and user can edit any cell and make necessary modifications.

Select data that has to be locked. Open the Format cells dialogue box, click protection tab and enable ‘Lock’.

Locking and unlocking cells does not have any effect until you assign a password to the worksheet.

Click on 'Tools' menu and select ‘Protect sheet’ from ‘Protection’ sub-menu. Excel prompts you to enter a password. Enter your password and click on 'Ok.'

Tips: Passwords can be optional. You can protect your worksheet without a password. This helps when very low level security is enough for your worksheet.

Once you protected the sheet with a password, any cell can be edited except locked cells. To do any modifications in the locked cells you will need to unlock the sheet.

Tips: You can even hide the formulas in the cell from display (viewing through formula bar) by turning on ‘Hide’ option that is just below the ‘Lock’ option.

What would happen if you forget your password?

The worksheet can be unprotected only by entering the correct password. You will not be able to open the worksheet without entering the password.

Also please remember that passwords are case sensitive. So please check ‘Caps lock’ in your keyboard before you enter the password.