3 ways to save an Excel sheet as a PDF file

ANKUSH CHOPRA

Do you do analysis in Excel and create reports in MS Word, PowerPoint, Key Note or other tools?

Are you worried if the data reflected in your reports is the latest data, and with no errors due to copy-paste? Stop copying data, charts and analysis from one tool to the other.

In this article to find out three ways to save an Excel Sheet as a PDF file and reduce your effort and chances of errors.

Three puzzle pieces on an orange background

3 ways to save an Excel sheet as a PDF file

ANKUSH CHOPRA

Do you do analysis in Excel and create reports in MS Word, PowerPoint, Key Note or other tools?

Are you worried if the data reflected in your reports is the latest data, and with no errors due to copy-paste? Stop copying data, charts and analysis from one tool to the other.

In this article to find out three ways to save an Excel Sheet as a PDF file and reduce your effort and chances of errors.

Three puzzle pieces on an orange background

How to create a PDF from an excel sheet

Excel is a wonderful tool for conducting data analysis and creating charts and other visual representations. Professionals or students can use it to create detailed reports, graphs, and tables that are easy to read and understand. Once we complete the analysis, we usually copy the analysis into a tool like PowerPoint, Word, Google Sheets, etc., and save it as a PDF document.

Often, there is a question, how to make a PDF of an Excel Sheet? PDF documents are easy to share with others and are preferred by many. The good news is that you can use Excel to create PDFs from an Excel sheet. You need not do the additional steps of copying it to PowerPoint or another tool. In this article, we will share three methods on how to create PDF from Excel sheets and share them with your colleagues or clients.

Method 1: Save an Excel Sheet as a PDF file

The simplest method to save an Excel Sheet as a PDF file is to use the native Save As feature provided in Excel. Once you get the Save As Dialog box, you need to select the extension type as PDF.

Save As PDF option selected while saving an Excel file

This method will, by default, save the entire content of the Excel Sheet. If you want to restrict the amount of data you want to save in a file, you can set a Print Area. If the Print Area is defined, only that part will get saved while creating a PDF from an Excel Sheet.

Print Area can be defined using the following steps:

  1. Select the part of the Excel Sheet that you want to save as a PDF
  2. Go to Page Layout
  3. Select Print Area and then click on Set Print Area
Image showing Set Print Area option n Page Layout

Method 2: Print an Excel Sheet as a PDF file

Here is another method often used to save an Excel file into PDF. Many people prefer this method when asked how to make PDF of Excel Sheet. This method is to Print an Excel Sheet as a PDF file. To save a file as PDF, you can use the Print option in the File menu. You could select the Save As PDF option or select the PDF option against the printer name.

Image showing Save as PDF option while printing

If you only want to save a small part of the Excel sheet, you can also use the Print Selection option. You follow the same steps to Print as Excel Sheet as a PDF file. However, before you click on the Print button, you need to choose the Print option as Selection. It will ensure that you only save the selected portion as the PDF file.

Image displaying Save Selection as PDF option while printing

Method 3: Use a Macro to Save an Excel Sheet as a PDF File

The third option is to use a macro to Save an Excel Sheet as a PDF file. You will usually use this method if you are automating creating reports using Excel. Read our article on how to automate report creating using Excel or Google Sheets to know more about automation and how you can save manual work hours.

Here is an illustrative code to save the file as a PDF file using macros:

Public Sub SaveAsPDF(strFileName As String)

Dim FolderLocation As String

Sheets("Generate Reports").Select ActiveSheet.Range("C10").Select

FolderLocation = ActiveCell.Value

Sheets(Array("Page 1")).Select

ActiveSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, Filename:=FolderLocation & "" & strFileName, openafterpublish:=False, ignoreprintareas:=False

End Sub

Cell C10 contains the Folder Location where Excel will save the file.

We have used this macro in our course Magic Reports, where you can use a simple method to automate any report design and creation using Excel or Google Sheets. Magic Reports is a one-of-a-kind course in the world that makes it possible for anyone to automate reports even if they have never done so before. If you want to know more, click here to visit the course details page. You can read more about the course on this page and watch some free lesson videos (no sign-in or credit card required).

How to make multiple excel sheets into one PDF file

If you want to know how to make multiple Excel Sheets into one PDF file, then you can use one of the following methods:
  1. Select more than one worksheet before you click on File -> Save As option in Excel. If multiple worksheets are selected, Excel will save the PDF file with multiple pages.
  2. Similarly, you can select the entire workbook option when you are printing the file as a PDF.
  3. You can provide more than one-page name in the Array option in the code, e.g., Sheets(Array("Page1", "Page2"))

How to design a report with design elements in Excel?

Many people do not ask how to make an Excel Spreadsheet a PDF as they are not familiar with the fact that you can design beautiful reports using Excel. If you have never tried this before, you will be amazed at how easy it is to design a report in Excel. The workflow that we recommend is as below:
  1. Identify the number of sections that you anticipate in the report
  2. Create a separate Excel sheet for each page
  3. Design the report using shapes, charts, and text boxes to format the text the way you want
  4. Perform the data analysis and make the images refer to the data source in Excel
This method is straightforward and can save you the trouble of creating reports in a different tool and achieving the design of your choice. Since it is in Excel, you can easily automate creating reports in bulk.

We have explained this method of designing a report in Excel in our course Magic Reports. You can visit the course page and see our free videos to see this in action.

Final Words

You can use any of the three methods to save an Excel spreadsheet into a PDF file. The choice of method would primarily depend on two factors:
  1. If you are saving a file as part of an automation
  2. What is the amount of data that you are trying to save in the PDF file
Give it a try today and reach out to us at info@qling.net in case of queries.

LinkedIn Logo
Facebook Logo
Instagram Logo
Pinterest Logo