Excel 2010 Export/save as PDF changes cell layout

Question

Hi,

I have a problem at work with exporting Excel sheets to PDF.

We have this problem for a long time, but no one knows a good solution.

It's about a row of cells, each containing text (most of them contain about 5-10 lines of text).

When I select the cells, and print them to PDF, the resulting PDF file looks different;

In Excel, the text fits perfectly in each cell, but in the PDF file, the cells are much bigger, and there are about two lines of white space at the bottom of each cell (the amount of white space increases when there is more text in a cell).

So the way we solve this now, is to save it as PDF, then check each cell, and then manually adjust (reduce) the size of each cell that is too big in the PDF file. Then I have to export it again, recheck, until it is good.

It would save me a lot of time if the cells remained the same in the PDF, and I really hope someone knows a solution to my problem.

PS: I've tried to solve this by using different export settings, like adjusting the scaling, and the margins etc, but it doesn't help.

Answer 1

This sounds a lot like the problem that I was having after installing Windows 10. I had to go into mt settings and change the default printer to my printer that prints 8.5 x 11 pages. After I set this printer as my default printer, my save as pdf file saved the file in one full size page again.

Answer 2

Hey Frank

I am not sure what that person is talking about either.

I would think that when you save an excel file to pdf format or print to pdf file (using a 3rd party pdf printer), the formatting will change even if it is just slightly.

I tried to do a test and saved as a pdf file then printed and compared to a pronnted excel file, and Excel just renders the printing differently because of the change of format.

If there is a way to adjust this, I am not aware of anythong other than the manual method you have tried. The closest I got was to save the file to pdf format file and then print.

Sorry I could not provide any solutions. And I apologize for the really poor attempt at help by the firt replier. You usually will find great help in the Excel forums, especially from our MVP's and MCC's out there.

Thanks...

Answer 3

Does Print Preview show the same result as Print to pdf. Create a table in with cells, print it to pdf. If it works, copy the contents of Excel workbook to a new file and print to pdf from there.

Answer 4

Print preview does show the same result as Print to pdf.

But I do not fully understand what you mean;

"Create a table in with cells", you mean I need to create a table and insert the cells?

And what do I need to copy to a new file? The exact sheet?