- Spreadsheet Basics
- Creating Your First Google Docs Spreadsheet
- Creating a New Spreadsheet from a Template
- Formatting a Spreadsheet
- Working with Data
- Printing and Deleting Spreadsheets
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Printing and Deleting Spreadsheets
To finish up this chapter on the basics of using spreadsheets, we cover printing and deleting spreadsheets. Both of these common activities are straightforward in Docs, as you'll soon see.
Printing a Spreadsheet
Sometimes, only a hard copy of a spreadsheet will do. In Google Docs, printing out a spreadsheet is really a matter of exporting the spreadsheet as a PDF file, opening the file in a PDF reader, and then printing the file from there.
So when you want to print a copy of your spreadsheet, the first step is to convert the spreadsheet into a PDF. "Exporting as a PDF," earlier in this chapter, gave you detailed instructions on how to do that. The only difference here is that you tell Google to convert the current spreadsheet to a PDF file by selecting File, Print. (Alternatively, you can click the toolbar's Print button or press Ctrl+P [Cmd-P] on your keyboard.) This opens the Print Settings dialog box, whose options are exactly the same as in the Export to PDF dialog box shown in Figure 6.9. If you want, flip back to that figure to take a look.
){kind=link}
When you've chosen the options you want for your printed spreadsheet in the Print Settings box, click Print. Your Web browser opens a window asking how you want to download the file: Save it to your computer or open it with an appropriate program, such as Adobe Reader (the suggested program depends on what's installed on your computer). Because you're going to print the file, you want to open it, so select that option.
The PDF opens in the program you chose. From there, print the file as you normally would from that program.
Deleting a Spreadsheet
If you no longer need a spreadsheet, you can delete it from the Docs home page. In the Docs list, find the spreadsheet you want to delete and check the box to the left of its name. Click Delete, and Google moves the spreadsheet to the Trash.
Putting a spreadsheet in the Trash doesn't mean it's gone. If you really want to get rid of the spreadsheet for good, click Trash in the pane on the left (it's under All Items). When the list of trashed files displays, check the box to the left of the spreadsheet's name. Click Empty Trash to remove that spreadsheet from your Google Docs account.