How to Print a Blank Table in Excel (All Versions)

Excel is a powerful tool in the hands of those who know how to use it. One of its many capabilities includes creating and printing empty tables, which can be helpful for myriad tasks such as organizing data or planning events. In this blog post, we’ll explore the process of creating and printing an empty table in Excel – from setting up your worksheet to saving ink while printing.

Creating an Empty Table in Excel

Understanding the Basics

Excel’s tabular format is designed to help you organize and manipulate data easily. Even without inputting any data, you can still create a table structure. This might seem redundant at first, but a blank table can serve as a useful template for future use.

The Creation Process

To create an empty table, simply select the range of cells you wish to include in your table and then click on ‘Insert’ -> ‘Table’. Make sure that the ‘My table has headers’ box is unchecked and voila ! You have created your empty table !

Moving forward from creation, let’s look at initial setup procedures.

Initial Steps to Prepare Your Worksheet

Setting Up the Worksheet

Your worksheet must be set up correctly before you start building your table. This involves choosing the right number of rows and columns for your needs, naming your sheet appropriately, and ensuring that it is free from unnecessary clutter.

Now that we have our worksheet ready, let’s move on to customizing our empty table.

Customizing Table Dimensions

Deciding on the Size

An important step in crafting your perfect blank Excel table is deciding on its size. Consider carefully what you will be using this table for before deciding on the number of rows and columns. Remember, excel allows you to adjust these dimensions later if necessary.

Next, we will delve into how to format an empty table.

Formatting an Empty Table

The Importance of Formatting

Table formatting is essential to making your work easily readable and visually appealing. It can also help differentiate between various types of data in case you decide to fill in the table later.

How to Format

To format your empty Excel table, select it and then navigate to ‘Home’ -> ‘Styles’ -> ‘Format as Table’. Choose a design that suits your preferences.

Having formatted our table, let’s learn some keyboard shortcuts for working with an empty table.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts for an Empty Table

Why Use Keyboard Shortcuts ?

Keyboard shortcuts save time and make processes more efficient. Excel has numerous shortcuts, some of which are particularly handy when dealing with blank tables.

Let’s now look at the critical steps before printing our empty table.

Preparatory Settings before Printing an Empty Table

The Print Preview

Before hitting the print button, always check the print preview. This gives you a clear picture of how your document will look post-printing, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments.

Moving onto a slightly tricky part – how do we print only the borders ?

Selecting and Printing Only Borders

The Selective Printing Process

If you want to print just the borders of your Excel table without any cells or information inside it, there’s a straightforward way to do it: switch all cell color to ‘no fill’ and set the border color as black.

Last but not least, let’s discuss some tips to save ink while printing.

Tips for Saving Ink while Printing

Lowering Print Quality

One simple way to save ink is by lowering your printer’s print quality settings. However, keep in mind that this might affect the clarity of your printed document.

Print in Grayscale

Another effective method to conserve ink is to print your document in grayscale instead of color.

In today’s guide, we have walked you through the process of creating an empty table in Excel, setting up your worksheet, customizing your table dimensions, formatting it correctly, using keyboard shortcuts and preparing it for printing. We’ve also shared how you can print only borders, along with some crucial tips on saving ink. Remember these points next time you need a blank Excel table – they’re bound to come in handy !