When you look at a printout from Excel, sometimes there is content at the bottom of each page that is not part of the actual workbook. This is the Footer. Although Excel allows you to put anything in the Footer, typically this area of the page contains a page number, the current date, the filename, the sheet name or a combination.
There’s actually 3 sections to the Footer – a left section, a centre section and a right section, although it is not necessary to populate all 3. In the example below, the centre section will be populated with the filename (Sales Dashboard.xlsx) and the sheet name (By State)
Note: This tutorial is relevant to both Excel on Windows and Mac
Step 1 (Windows)
From the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon, click the tiny arrowhead in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup section
Step 1 (Mac)
From the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon, select Page Setup
Step 2 (Windows and Mac)
Click the Custom Footer button
Step 3 (Windows and Mac)
- Click into the appropriate section (I’ve selected the Center section)
- Click the Filename button (1) – the code &[File] is added to the Center section
- Click the Sheet Name button (2) – the code &[Tab] is added to the Center section
- Add spaces and/or additional characters between the codes – in this example I have added a space followed by a colon (:) followed by another space. When the document is printed, the Footer will contain the filename and the sheetname with a space, a colon and a space between them.
- Click OK
Step 4 (Windows and Mac)
The Page Setup dialog box displays a preview of the Footer. This is how it will appear when it is printed.
