{"id":4588,"date":"2024-12-02T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:26:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:26:52","slug":"remove-page-1-watermark-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/archives\/2024\/12\/02\/remove-page-1-watermark-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"Remove Page 1 Watermark in Excel-Easy Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever opened an Excel workbook and noticed a large Page 1 watermark in the middle of your worksheet? See why that happens, and how you can fix it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px currentcolor; display: inline; background-image: none;\" title=\"Page 1 watermark in the middle of worksheet\" src=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview01_thumb.png\" alt=\"Page 1 watermark in the middle of worksheet\" width=\"445\" height=\"255\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Video: Remove Page 1 Watermark<\/h3>\n<p>In this short video, and the written steps below, I&#8217;ll show you the easy steps to remove that big page number from the Excel background.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is the Page 1 Watermark on Excel Worksheet?\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Gbof4Q0pQw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: The full video transcript is at the end of this page.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Does Page 1 Appear?<\/h3>\n<p>That large grey Page 1 watermark appears on an Excel sheet if you&#8217;re in <strong>Page Break<\/strong> view.<\/p>\n<p>Usually, a worksheet is in <strong>Normal<\/strong> view, and that page number isn&#8217;t visible on the cell grid.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow, your workbook switched to Page Break Preview. Maybe a co-worker changed the view, or it might have been changed accidentally.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the good news it that this problem is easy to fix!<\/p>\n<h3>Switch to Normal View<\/h3>\n<p>To get out of Page Break Preview mode and go back to the normal view, follow these simple steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>On the Excel Ribbon, click on the <strong>View<\/strong> tab.<\/li>\n<li>At the left end of the Ribbon, click on <strong>Normal<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The sheet changes, and the Page 1 watermark disappears.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Now you can see your worksheet as you usually do!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview04.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px currentcolor; display: inline; background-image: none;\" title=\"Normal view command on Excel Ribbon View tab\" src=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview04_thumb.png\" alt=\"Normal view command on Excel Ribbon View tab\" width=\"337\" height=\"197\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Switch to Page Break Preview<\/h3>\n<p>If you&#8217;d ever like to go back to Page Break Preview, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>On the Excel Ribbon, go to the <strong>View<\/strong> tab.<\/li>\n<li>Click on <strong>Page Break Preview<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: You might see a Welcome to Page Break Preview message explaining what you can do in this view. If you don\u2019t want to see this again, just check the box and click <strong>OK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Using Page Break Preview<\/h3>\n<p>In Page Break Preview, you&#8217;ll see dashed blue lines indicating <strong>automatic page breaks<\/strong>. Excel inserts those, based on your worksheet&#8217;s layout.<\/p>\n<p>As you scroll down, you can see how your pages will look when printed.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you&#8217;re on page 2, everything you see there will print on that page.<\/p>\n<h3>Adjust Page Breaks<\/h3>\n<p>If you want to keep certain sections together, you can move the page breaks:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Hover over the dashed blue line (automatic page break) to see it change to a hand icon.<\/li>\n<li>Click and drag the line to the spot where you want it.\n<ul>\n<li>For example, you can move it between two rows to keep related data together.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When you release the mouse button, the line will turn solid blue, indicating that it is now a <strong>manual page break<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview01-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px currentcolor; display: inline; background-image: none;\" title=\"drag page break dotted line to new location\" src=\"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pagebreakpreview01_thumb-1.png\" alt=\"drag page break dotted line to new location\" width=\"475\" height=\"440\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Checking Page Layout Before Printing<\/h3>\n<p>Before you print, it&#8217;s a good idea to check each page in Page Break Preview to make sure everything is in the right place.<\/p>\n<p>If not, you can adjust the page breaks by dragging them around.<\/p>\n<h3>Remove Page Breaks<\/h3>\n<p>If you change your mind about a manual page break, you can easily remove it:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click on the cell just below the manual page break you want to remove.<\/li>\n<li>Right-click and select <strong>Remove Page Break<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>To remove all manual page breaks, right-click and choose <strong>Reset All Page Breaks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Switch to Normal View<\/h3>\n<p>When you&#8217;re done adjusting your page breaks, return to the normal view:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the <strong>Normal<\/strong> button in the <strong>View<\/strong> tab, or<\/li>\n<li>Click the <strong>Normal View<\/strong> button at the bottom right of the Excel window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Now you&#8217;re back to the regular spreadsheet view, ready for any other tasks you need to do!<\/p>\n<h3>Excel Printing Tips<\/h3>\n<p>For more details on Page Break Preview, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.contextures.com\/excelpagewatermark.html\">Remove Page 1 Watermark page<\/a> on my Contextures site.<br \/>\nFor more Excel printing tips, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.contextures.com\/excelprinting.html\">Excel Printing page<\/a> on my Contextures site.<\/p>\n<h3>Video Transcript<\/h3>\n<p>In Excel, you might open a workbook, or switch to a different worksheet, and see a large Page 1 in gray in the middle of your worksheet. This is a sign that you&#8217;re in page break preview, and it can be a very useful place to work.<\/p>\n<h5>Turn It Off<\/h5>\n<p>I&#8217;ll show you how you can use it, but first I&#8217;ll show you how to turn this off, and then back on. To turn it off,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Go to the ribbon and click the View tab<\/li>\n<li>At the left, you&#8217;ll see Normal, Page Layout and Page Break Preview.<\/li>\n<li>To go back to the regular view, you just click Normal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is your worksheet, as you&#8217;re used to seeing it.<\/p>\n<h4>Page Break Preview Features<\/h4>\n<p>We&#8217;ll go back into Page Break Preview, so you can see some of the useful features that it has.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NOTE: The first time you use it, you might see this little welcome that tells you what you can do in Page Break Preview. And if you don&#8217;t want to see that again, just check the box, and click OK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I scroll down in Page Break Preview, if it&#8217;s a long worksheet, you&#8217;ll see dashed blue lines, and that indicates an automatic page break.<\/p>\n<p>If I scroll down now I&#8217;m on page two and you can see what we&#8217;ll print on page two and three, and so on down to the end of the worksheet.<\/p>\n<p>If I look at the place that the first page break will fall, I&#8217;m going to increase the zoom a little so I can see what&#8217;s there. And there are a few items here for February 21st.<\/p>\n<h4>Move a Page Break<\/h4>\n<p>Some of them are on page one, and the rest are on page two. If I&#8217;d like to keep those all together, I can move this page break.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ll point to the line, drag it up, so it&#8217;s between the 14th and the 21st.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I let go, it&#8217;s now a solid blue line, and that indicates a manual page break &#8212; one that I&#8217;ve put in, rather than an automatic one.<\/p>\n<p>If I scroll down, there&#8217;s the end of page two, I can adjust it as well by dragging up.<\/p>\n<p>You can just check each page before you print it and make sure everything is in a place where you want it.<\/p>\n<h4>Remove a Page Break<\/h4>\n<p>After you&#8217;ve added manual page breaks, you can also remove them if you change your mind.<\/p>\n<p>So if I click on this cell, just below the first manual page break, and right click, I can click the command here to remove that page break.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s gone now, and there&#8217;s the automatic page break back.<\/p>\n<p>If I want to get rid of all of the page breaks that I put in, I can right-click, and reset all page breaks.<\/p>\n<h4>Go Back to Normal View<\/h4>\n<p>Then to go back to normal view:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can click this button on the View tab<\/li>\n<li>Or at the bottom-right click the Normal View button<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and you&#8217;re back to the regular spreadsheet view.<\/p>\n<h3>More Printing Tips<\/h3>\n<p>For more Excel printing tips, try these pages on my Contextures site:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.contextures.com\/xlcomments01.html#Printing\">Printing Excel Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.contextures.com\/excelbingocardsprint.html\">Print Excel Bingo Cards<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.contextures.com\/excelreportdiagnosticdisplay.html\">Pivot Filter Pre-Printing Diagnostic<\/a><\/p>\n<p>__________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever opened an Excel workbook and noticed a large Page 1 watermark in the middle of your worksheet? See why that happens, and how you can fix it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excel-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exceltheatre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}