Page breaks are dividers that break a worksheet into separate pages for printing. Microsoft Excel inserts automatic page breaks based on the paper size, margin settings, scale options, and the positions of any manual page breaks that you insert. To print a worksheet with the exact number of pages that you want, you can adjust the page breaks in the worksheet before you print it.

Although you can work with page breaks in Normal view, we recommend that you usePage Break Preview view to adjust page breaks so that you can see how other changes that you make (such as page orientation and formatting changes) affect the automatic page breaks. For example, you can see how a change that you make to the row height and column width affects the placement of the automatic page breaks.

To override the automatic page breaks that Excel inserts, you can insert your own manual page breaks, move existing manual page breaks, or delete any manually-inserted page breaks. You can also quickly remove all the manually-inserted page breaks. After you finish working with page breaks, you can return to Normal view.

• Learn more about page breaks
• Insert a page break
• Move a page break
• Delete a manually-inserted page break
• Remove all manually-inserted page breaks
• Return to Normal view
• Display or hide page breaks in Normal view

Learn more about page breaks

The best way to view all the page breaks in your workbook is in Page Break Preview view. Page Break Preview view uses a different format to display each type of page break:

• Dashed lines    A dashed line specifies an automatic page break.

• Solid lines    A solid line specifies a manual page break.

By default, page breaks are not shown in Normal view. However, if you want to view page breaks in Normal view, you can display them in this view.

In Normal view, you can use the Breaks command (Page Layout tab, Page Setup group) to insert, remove, and reset page breaks. You cannot drag page breaks to another location in Normal view.

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Insert a page break

1. Select the worksheet that you want to modify.
2. On the View tab, in the Workbook Views group, click Page Break Preview.

 TIP   You can also click Page Break Preview  on the status bar.

 NOTE   If you get the Welcome to Page Break Perview dialog box, click OK. To not see this dialog box every time you go to Page Break Preview view, select the Do not show this dialog again check box before you click OK.

3. Do one of the following:
   • To insert a horizontal page break, select the row below where you want to insert the page break.
   • To insert a vertical page break, select the column to the right of where you want to insert the page break.
4. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.

5. Click Insert Page Break.

 TIP   You can also right-click the row or column below or to the right of where you want to insert the page break, and then click Insert Page Break.

 NOTE   If manual page breaks that you insert do not take effect, it may be that the Fit Toscaling option has been selected on the Page tab of the Page Setup dialog box (Page Layout tab, Page Setup group, Dialog Box Launcher  ). To use the manual page breaks, change the scaling to Adjust to instead.

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Move a page break

 IMPORTANT   To enable dragging of page breaks to another location in a worksheet, make sure that the cell drag-and-drop feature is enabled. If this feature is not enabled, you may not be able to move any page breaks.

To verify that drag-and-drop is enabled, do the following:

Click the File tab.

1. Under Help, click Options.
2. In the Advanced category, under Editing options, select the Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop check box, and then click OK.
3. Select the worksheet that you want to modify.
4. On the View tab, in the Workbook Views group, click Page Break Preview.
   1. 

   2.  TIP   You can also click Page Break Preview  on the status bar.

   3.  NOTE   If you get the Welcome to Page Break Perview dialog box, click OK. To not see this dialog box every time you go to Page Break Preview view, select the Do not show this dialog again check box before you click OK.

5. To move a page break, drag the page break to a new location.

 NOTE   Moving an automatic page break changes it to a manual page break.

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Delete a manually-inserted page break

 NOTE   You cannot delete page breaks that Excel has added automatically. Adding manual page breaks, changing the page orientation, or adjusting column widths and row heights may affect automatically-inserted page breaks.

To delete a manually-inserted page break, do the following:

1. Select the worksheet that you want to modify.
2. On the View tab, in the Workbook Views group, click Page Break Preview.

 TIP   You can also click Page Break Preview  on the status bar.

 NOTE   If you get the Welcome to Page Break Perview dialog box, click OK. To not see this dialog box every time you go to Page Break Preview view, select the Do not show this dialog again check box before you click OK.

3. Do one of the following:
   • To delete a vertical page break, select the column to the right of the page break that you want to delete.
   • To delete a horizontal page break, select the row below the page break that you want to delete.

 NOTE   You cannot delete an automatic page break.

4. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.

5. Click Remove Page Break.

 TIP   You can also remove a page break by dragging it outside of the page break preview area (to the left or right for vertical page breaks, or up or down for horizontal page breaks). If you cannot drag page breaks, make sure that the drag-and-drop feature is enabled. For more information, see Move a page break.

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Remove all manually-inserted page breaks

 NOTE   This removes all manual page breaks and resets the worksheet to display only the automatic page breaks.

1. Click the worksheet that you want to modify.
2. On the View tab, in the Workbook Views group, click Page Break Preview.

 TIP   You can also click Page Break Preview  on the status bar.

 NOTE   If you get the Welcome to Page Break Perview dialog box, click OK. To not see this dialog box every time you go to Page Break Preview view, select the Do not show this dialog again check box before you click OK.

3. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.

4. Click Reset All Page Breaks.

 TIP   You can also right-click any cell on the worksheet, and then click Reset All Page Breaks.

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Return to Normal view

• To return to Normal view after you finish working with the page breaks, on the Viewtab, in the Workbook Views group, click Normal.

 TIP   You can also click Normal  on the status bar.

 NOTE   After working with page breaks in Page Break Preview view, you may still see the page breaks in Normal view because page breaks have been turned on automatically. To turn them off, see Display or hide page breaks in Normal view.

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Display or hide page breaks in Normal view

Click the File tab.

1. Under Help, click Options.
2. In the Advanced category, under Display options for this worksheet, select or clear theShow page breaks check box to turn page breaks on or off in Normal view.