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If you get tired of having to always delete the extra blank worksheets in a new excel workbook, or tire of having to set up the same headers and footers you always do, you can just change your default workbook to match your preferences.  Below, I give you two methods.

Method One: Roll your own.

  1. Open
    a new worksheet, and make your favorite starting settings
  2. Save
    the file with the name book.xlt to the following location:
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft
    Office\Office11\XLStart\

Method Two:  Use My Template

  1. Download book.xlt
  2. Save
    the file with the name book.xlt to the following location:
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft
    Office\Office11\XLStart\

Here’s the settings I used:

1) Deleted two or the three default sheets (so I start with just one)

2) Set Page Properties (File > Page Setup)

a)    Page Tab

  • Orientation:  Landscape
  • Scaling: Fit to 1 page wide, 100 tall

b)    Margins Tab

  • Left and right margins reduced from .75 to .5

c)    Header/Footer Tab

  • Header:  Sheet Name
  • Footer:  File Path\File Name | Blank middle | Page X of Y

d)    Sheet Tab

  • Print Titles: Rows to repeat at top (I choose the top row, or $1:$1)
  • Print:  turn ON Gridlines

3)    Set Cell Properties

a)    Highlight the entire worksheet by clicking in the top left corner
b)    Format > Cells > Alignment Tab

  • Text Alignment: Vertical = Top
  • Text Control = select Wrap Text

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