Creating PDF and XPS documents in Excel 2010
Synopsis: In this article we look at how to convert a workbook to PDF or XPS format. These formats are readable by people who do not have Excel 2010 installed.
Excel 2010 is a very popular spreadsheet program, but not everybody has it installed. To share a workbook with people who do not have Excel 2010 installed, one option is to produce a copy in PDF format. PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and this is an open standard for document exchange that was originally developed by Adobe Systems. Just about every PC or Mac user has a piece of software installed that can read documents in this format. The most popular piece of software of this type is the Adobe Reader (sometimes called Adobe Acrobat Reader), which is downloadable free of charge from the Adobe Systems website.
Let’s first see how to produce a PDF document. With your workbook open, click the File tab to go into Backstage View and select Save & Send.
Click Create PDF/XPS Document.
Click Create PDF/XPS.
Make sure that the Save as type selected is PDF (*.pdf).
If you are creating the copy to share online, select the option Minimum Size (publishing online).
You can also check the box Open file after publishing if you want to see the copy straight away.
Enter a suitable filename or accept the default that Excel 2010 creates based on the name of your workbook.
Click the Options… button.
Here you can select from some important options.
In the Publish what section you can tell Excel 2010 whether you want to print just the active sheet (which is the default), all selected sheets or the entire workbook.
You can also specify whether you want to include non-printing information (document properties and/or structure tags). Both of these are included by default.
When you have finished setting options, click OK and you will return to the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog. Here is the completed dialog.
Click Publish and you can preview the PDF version of the workbook.
Documents in PDF format appear just about exactly as they appear in the original software that was used to produce them. One big advantage to producing copies of your workbooks in PDF format is that the format prevents people from changing the workbooks and restricts them to reading them. In fact, this is often the reason that people produce copies of their workbooks in PDF format.
Another option for sharing workbooks is to produce a copy in XPS format.
XPS Stands for XML Paper Specification and this is an open document layout specification that was developed by Microsoft. In some ways it can be seen as a competitor to PDF format. XPS has very wide “native” support within newer versions of MS Windows, which means that XPS documents can be produced and read easily with no additional software needed. However, support for XPS format away from Windows computers is limited in comparison with support for PDF format.
The procedure to create a copy of your workbook in XPS format is identical to the one for PDF format up to the point where you see the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog. Then you need to change the Save as type to XPS Document(*.xps) as shown here.
From there on the procedure is the same.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
