Excel "Print to PDF" creating multiple files

I am trying to print a workbook to pdf, but for some reason, it is attempting to save to multiple files. About 10 pages want to save in 2-3 pages per file, then the rest (another 15) save to the remaining file, totalling ~6 separate files. This happens with both Adobe and CutePDF Writer. How can I print the entire workbook into one file?

• microsoft-excel
• print-to-pdf

6 Answers 6

I understand you are trying to print the entire workbook instead of just one worksheet (see screenshot). If that's the case, the default Excel behavior is to send each and every worksheet separately to the printer. That causes the PDF writer to create a separate file.

The solution is quite simple and I borrowed it from this site - thanks Helen Bradley! Follow these steps:

• Select all worksheets (right click in any worksheet tab and click "Select All Sheets"
• Select "File", "Print. " and "Print Active Sheets" to PDF.

For some magic reason Excel now appends all output to the printer instead of sending each and every worksheet separately. This creates one PDF file with all worksheets in it.

I had a similar problem, which I discovered was due to different DPI settings on each page.

I followed these instructions and it worked perfectly:

1. Open the Excel workbook
2. Select the sheet you want to set the DPI for
3. In Microsoft Excel 2007/2010/2013 go to Page Layout and click on the expand button for the Page Setup dialog (for Microsoft Excel 2003 or earlier go to File->Page Setup)
4. In the Print Quality section enter the DPI value that you want to have for your document (note that this is the DPI value you will have to set for each individual sheet too) and press OK

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To create separate PDf files with for each worksheet with worksheet name you need to create a macro. For that

1. Press Alt + F11
2. MainMenu > InsertModule
3. Insert the code below

Sub SaveAsPDF() Dim CurWorksheet As Worksheet Dim FileName As String For Each CurWorksheet In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets FileName = Application.ActiveWorkbook.Path FileName = FileName & "\" FileName = FileName & CurWorksheet.Name CurWorksheet.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, FileName:=FileName, Quality:=xlQualityStandard, OpenAfterPublish:=False, IgnorePrintAreas:=False Next CurWorksheet End Sub 

1. Close the window
2. Go to Developer Tab and press Macros
3. Run SaveAsPDF

While this is not a direct answer to the question, it is a solution -

I managed to get the Adobe Acrobat plugin working so that I could use the "Create PDF" option in the "Acrobat" Ribbon toolbar.

To do so, I had to:

• Make sure that I had the correct version of Acrobat (Microsoft Office 2013 only works with Adobe Acrobat XI)
• Make sure Acrobat was up to date
• Add the Adobe PDFMaker Office COM Addin in Excel (Generally found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat \PDFMaker )
  • To do this, go to File > Options > Add-ins
  • At the bottom of the page, in the "Manage" dropdown box, select "COM Add-ins"
  • If you have this already in the list, disable it, then re-enable it. If not, click "Add" then navigate to the file (using the path mentioned above)
  • Restart Excel.

  That should give you this ribbon option, which will create a single pdf of the entire project.

  answered Feb 26, 2015 at 23:54 1,276 8 8 gold badges 22 22 silver badges 45 45 bronze badges

  The only thing that worked for me was to SAVE AS then select type as PDF and then on the Options button select "Entire Workbook".

  answered Jan 6, 2017 at 14:00

  I know that this thread is old, but I stumbled upon it from google, so I imagine someone else will too. Agtover's answer is a good one, but it leaves out an important step. You don't need to just select all sheets. After you select all sheets, you also need to modify the page setup in some way. This is what forces all sheets into the same page setup, which allows them to print on the same pdf.

  this page created by Helen Bradley and linked by agtover in their solution has the full instructions. In summary:

  1. Select all worksheets (right-click in any worksheet tab and click "Select All Sheets")
  2. Modify page setup in some way. An easy thing to do is to change the scaling % by 1%. You can then change it back.
  3. Print to PDF

  I would have posted this as a comment to agtover's answer, but I do not have enough reputation to comment

  answered Jan 5, 2021 at 15:13 RazorPazor RazorPazor

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  • microsoft-excel
  • print-to-pdf
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