Printed sheet shows text not seen on monitor screen

S

stevemalee

When I print a sheet, I see text that is not on the same cell when viewing
the monitor of the same page.

This has caused me many problems, but until now I did not know why I had
problems.

Thanks for your help
 
S

stevemalee

In a cell, for example, on the screen it is blank. When the page is printed,
the "blank cell" has printed text. This happens on only one column and in
2-3 cells of that column. I checked the format cells and it shows word wrap,
merge cells, and left to right. The color on all the cells is OK at a blue
shade. When I look at print preview the cells are blank, but when the sheet
is printed, the text shows.

The other odd thing is the cell size in the columns on the left and right of
the "problem column" are the desired size. There are 3 small cells in the
same size on the "problem column" and I can't figure out how to correct this.

Thanks for your continued assistance.
 
F

Fred Smith

Here are my suggestions for troubleshooting:

1. Unmerge the cells. Everything I've read on this forum says merged cells are
more trouble than they are worth, and could be the source of your problem.
2. Print on a color printer. You may have a print color and a background color
which cancel each other out in color display, but don't in black and white.
3. Can you tell where the printed text is coming from? Is it an adjacent cell?

When you say "There are 3 small cells in the same size on the "problem column"
and I can't figure out how to correct this.", what problem do you want solved?
 
S

stevemalee

I was printing in color, and did change to black as you suggested. Now this
is very odd. In the cells where nothing is seen on the screen, when I print
in black, the text does not print - only prints when color option is chosen.

But the problem is not in the printing ( now it is ), it is on the screen.
The text prints in color - but not black, but is not seen on the screen
either way.

I told you about the cell sizes because I thought it would be a clue.

The lines for the small “different†cells don't show up on the page printed
in black, but do show up as one "double" line on the color printed page.

A normal cell has the border: "Outline" is chosen, and on the box below
that says "text" the black border is shown around the entire box.

But on the "problem" column/cells, the border chosen is "outline" -- but on
the box below that says "text" only the sides of the box show the black
border. Nothing shows on the top or bottom of the cell in the border tab of
"format cells" menu, but on the screen you see a very light line that
differentiates the different cells.

Also when I opened the format box to un-click the "merge cells" choice as
you suggested, it was already un-clicked. Apparently, a default removed my
check mark.
 
F

Fred Smith

Can we assume that you want all these cells to print with the same format?

If so, copy the format from a good cell to a problem cell. Better yet, make sure
all the cells have the same format. Highlight the top left cell in the range in
question. Right-click on the fill handle and drag to select the entire range,
When you release the mouse button, choose Fill Formatting Only.

Now all cells will have the same formatting. Does that solve your problem?
 
S

stevemalee

When I drag across all the cells, I get a message saying that the operation
requires merged cells to be identically sized. Across the row, some of the
cells are "good" and the others have the extra light lines in them.

If I remove "merge cells" from the "good" cells, then the good cells have
the light lines in them.

If I drag across 2 "good cells" then the data from one is copied into the
other and I don't want the same data. Apparantly it is "autofilling" since
when I go to edit it says to "undo autofill"
 
S

stevemalee

Hi Fred,

Did you see my last message? Below?

stevemalee said:
When I drag across all the cells, I get a message saying that the operation
requires merged cells to be identically sized. Across the row, some of the
cells are "good" and the others have the extra light lines in them.

If I remove "merge cells" from the "good" cells, then the good cells have
the light lines in them.

If I drag across 2 "good cells" then the data from one is copied into the
other and I don't want the same data. Apparantly it is "autofilling" since
when I go to edit it says to "undo autofill"
Click to expand...
 
F

Fred Smith

Yes I did. However, I didn't see any answers to my questions, so I thought we'd
quit wasting each other's time. If you want to give it another go, here are my
questions:

Before you drag, did you eliminate all merged cells? I asked you to eliminate
the merged cells, because they could well be the source of your problem.

When you drag, do you use the left-mouse button or the right? I asked you to
drag with the right button. That way, when you release it, you get a message
allowing you to fill formatting only. That's what stops copying the data, as I
know you want only the formatting copied, not the data.

And yes, I'm aware that this method of dragging is called autofilling in Excel.
 
S

stevemalee

I thought I was answering/telling you what you asked me to do- and what
happened when I did it, that it didn't work.

So, let me try again.

I un-clicked all the cells that were merged and now all the big/good cells
have 3 small cells inside them. The problem is that I see for example rows
7, 8, & 9 inside an area that has the border around it, and that is what I
want to be the big/good cell -- the area that has the heavy black border, not
the 3 small rows. The big/good "cell" is the one that prints. All the cells
are not merged.

I used the right button to drag and did choose fill formatting only.

What then happens is my dates do not show up correctly. I checked how the
dates are formatted and all cells show date formats the same. Some dates are
correct, and some are a string of numbers making no sense.

So, I did what you asked. I un-merged all the cells and I used the right
button to drag.

But I still have the problem.

Thanks for being so patient
 
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