Convert Excel to PDF without losing the formatting
A spreadsheet that fits your screen does not automatically fit a page. The classic failure — twelve columns sliced across four pages — comes from skipping the page setup, and it is entirely avoidable.
XLSX, XLS and CSV are read locally and written to a clean PDF.
Up to 50 MB per file. Files are processed in your browser.
Full options and FAQs on the Excel to PDF page.
Set the page up before converting
- Orientation: landscape for anything wider than five or six columns.
- Scaling: 'Fit all columns on one page' is the single most useful setting.
- Print area: select only the range that matters so stray cells don't add blank pages.
- Repeat header rows on every page for tables longer than one page.
What to leave out
PDFs of spreadsheets are for reading, not recalculating — formulas, hidden helper sheets and working tabs should not ship. Set a print area over the final numbers, and if the workbook has several sheets, export only the one the recipient needs. A three-page PDF of results beats a forty-page dump of workings.
Readability checks
Zoom to 100% in the resulting PDF: if you are squinting, so will the recipient. For genuinely wide tables, consider splitting the data into two logical tables rather than shrinking everything to an unreadable scale — a rotated summary plus a detail page is kinder than 6-point type.
Step by step
- 1In Excel, set landscape orientation and 'fit columns to one page'.
- 2Define a print area covering only the relevant cells.
- 3Save or convert to PDF using the tool below.
- 4Open the PDF and check every column appears on each page.
- 5Adjust scaling in Excel and re-convert if anything is cut off.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do my columns split across pages?
- The sheet is wider than the printable page. Landscape orientation plus fit-columns scaling solves it in almost every case.
- Can I convert just one sheet?
- Yes — set the print area on that sheet or export only the active sheet.