How to save Excel as PDF with VBA (10 examples)

Since Excel 2010, it has been possible to save Excel as PDF. The PDF format was then and continues to be, one of the most common file formats for distributing documents.

The code examples below provide the VBA macros to automate the creation of PDFs from Excel using the ExportAsFixedFormat method. This means you do not require a PDF printer installed, as Excel can print directly to a PDF document.

• Saving Excel workbooks, sheets, charts, and ranges as PDF
  • Save active sheet as PDF
  • Save active workbook as PDF
  • Save selection as PDF
  • Save a range as PDF
  • Save a chart as PDF
  • Adapting the code to your scenario
  • Notes for saving PDF documents
  • Loop through sheets
  • Loop through selected sheets
  • Loop through charts
  • VBA Save to PDF Example using all the options

  The example codes can be used independently or as part of a larger automation process. For example, check out this post to see an example of how to loop through a list and print a PDF for each item: Create multiple PDFs based on a list

  Rather than going from Excel to PDF, you might want to go the other way; from PDF to Excel. Check out these posts for possible solutions for that scenario:

  • How to Import PDF Files into Excel with Power Query
  • Get data from PDF into Excel

  Download the example file: Join the free Insiders Program and gain access to the example file used for this post.

  File name: 0019 Save Excel as PDF with VBA.zip

  Saving Excel workbooks, sheets, charts, and ranges as PDF

  This section contains the base code to save Excel as PDF from different objects (workbooks, worksheets, ranges, and charts). From a VBA perspective, it is the ExportAsFilxedFormat method combined with the Type property set to xlTypePDF that creates a PDF.

  Save active sheet as PDF

  The following code saves the selected sheets as a single PDF.

  Sub SaveActiveSheetsAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" 'Save Active Sheet(s) as PDF ActiveSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  Save active workbook as PDF

  Use the following macro to save all the visible sheets from a workbook.

  Sub SaveActiveWorkbookAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" 'Save active workbook as PDF ActiveWorkbook.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  Save selection as PDF

  Sometimes, we only want to save a small part of a worksheet to a PDF. The following code prints only the selected cells.

  Sub SaveSelectionAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" 'Save selection as PDF Selection.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  Save a range as PDF

  The macro below saves a specified range as a PDF.

  Sub SaveRangeAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String Dim ws as Worksheet Dim rng As Range saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1") Set rng = ws.Range("A1:H20") 'Save a range as PDF rng.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  Save a chart as PDF

  The VBA code below saves a specified chart as a PDF.

  Sub SaveChartAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String Dim ws As Worksheet Dim cht As Chart saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1") Set cht = ws.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart 'Save a chart as PDF cht.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  Rather than naming a specific chart, the macro could run based on the active chart. Change this:

  Set cht = ws.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart

  Set cht = ActiveChart

  Adapting the code to your scenario

  To adapt the code examples to your specific needs, you should adjust certain lines of code.

  Change the save location

  To save the file in the correct location, change this list of code:

  saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf"

  If you would prefer the save location to be included in a cell, change the code to reference the sheet and cell containing the file path.

  saveLocation = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("B2").Value

  Change the worksheet

  In this line of code, change the text “Sheet1” to the sheet name in your workbook.

  Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1")

  Change the range

  The following line of codes references the range to be printed to PDF.

  Set rng = ws.Range("A1:H20")

  Change the chart

  To print a chart to PDF, change the chart’s name in the following line of code.

  Set cht = ws.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart

  If you are unsure of the chart name, it is shown in the Name box when the chart is selected.

  Notes for saving PDF documents

  While the Filename property is optional, it is important to know where the file is saved.

  • If the Filename property is not provided, the PDF saves in your default folder location using the Excel workbook’s name with the .pdf file extension.
  • Where a file name is provided, but not a file path, the document saves in your default folder location with the name provided.
  • When the .pdf file extension is not provided, the suffix is added automatically.
  • If a PDF exists in the specified save location, the existing file is overwritten. Therefore, it may be necessary to include file handling procedures to prevent overwriting existing documents and handling errors.
  • To save as an XPS document format, change xlTypePDF for xlTypeXPS.

  Selecting specific worksheets before saving as PDF

  If more than one worksheet is active, the PDF created includes all the active sheets. The following code selects multiple worksheets from an array before saving the PDF.

  Sub SelectSheetsAndSaveAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim saveLocation As String Dim sheetArray As Variant saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\OneDrive\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" sheetArray = Array("Sheet1", "Sheet2") 'Select specific sheets from workbook, the save all as PDF Sheets(sheetArray).Select ActiveSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation End Sub

  In the code above, an array is used to select the specific sheets. Alternatively, the Split array function with a text string could provide a more dynamic solution. This method is covered here: VBA Arrays.

  Looping and saving as separate PDFs

  To save multiple PDFs quickly, we can use VBA to loop through sheets or charts and save each individually.

  Loop through sheets

  The following macro loops through each worksheet in the active workbook and saves each as its own PDF. Each PDF is saved in the same folder as the workbook, where each PDF’s name is based on the worksheet’s name.

  Sub LoopSheetsSaveAsPDF() 'Create variables Dim ws As Worksheet 'Loop through all worksheets and save as individual PDF in same folder 'as the Excel file For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets ws.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=ThisWorkbook.Path & "/" & ws.Name & ".pdf" Next End Sub

  Loop through selected sheets

  The following macro loops through only the selected worksheets in the active workbook and saves each as its own PDF.

  Sub LoopSelectedSheetsSaveAsPDF() 'Create variables Dim ws As Worksheet Dim sheetArray As Variant 'Capture the selected sheets Set sheetArray = ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets 'Loop through each selected worksheet For Each ws In sheetArray ws.Select ws.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=ThisWorkbook.Path & "/" & ws.Name & ".pdf" Next ws 'Reselect the selected sheets sheetArray.Select End Sub

  Loop through charts

  The following code loops through each chart on the active sheet and saves each as a separate PDF.

  Sub LoopChartsSaveAsPDF() 'Create and assign variables Dim chtObj As ChartObject Dim ws As Worksheet Set ws = ActiveSheet 'Loop through all charts and save as individual PDF in same folder 'as the Excel file For Each chtObj In ws.ChartObjects chtObj.Chart.ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=ThisWorkbook.Path & "/" & chtObj.Name & ".pdf" Next chtObj End Sub

  Other PDF print options

  When using ExportAsFixedFormat, there are other optional settings available:

  'Open the document after it is saved - options are True / False OpenAfterPublish:=False 'Include the Excel document properties into the PDF - options are True / False IncludeDocProperties:=True 'Does the created PDF adhere to the Print Areas already set in the 'worksheet - options are True / False IgnorePrintAreas:=False 'Set the output quality of the created document - options are 'xlQualityMinimum / xlQualityStandard Quality:=xlQualityStandard 'The page to start printing. If excluded, will start from the first page From:=1 'The page to print to. If excluded, will go to the last page To:=2

  VBA Save to PDF Example using all the options

  The code below demonstrates how to use all the options within a single macro. These options can be flexed to meet your requirements.

  Sub SaveAsPDFOptions() Dim saveLocation As String saveLocation = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\myPDFFile.pdf" 'Example using all the options ActiveSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat _ Type:=xlTypePDF, _ Filename:=saveLocation, _ OpenAfterPublish:=False, _ IncludeDocProperties:=True, _ IgnorePrintAreas:=False, _ Quality:=xlQualityStandard, _ From:=1, To:=2 End Sub

  Other fixed formats available (xlTypeXPS)

  The Type property can also create XPS documents when it is set to xlTypeXPS rather than xlTypePDF. XPS is Microsoft’s fixed file format; it is similar to PDF but based on the XML language. It is rarely used in the real world but is an option if required.

  Conclusion

  Learning how to save Excel as PDF is a good time investment. Each of these code snippets on its own is useful. However, the code examples above can be used in other automation to create even more time-saving.

  • Excel – Create multiple PDFs based on a list
  • Loop through selected sheets with VBA
  • How to loop through each item in Data Validation list with VBA

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  2 thoughts on “How to save Excel as PDF with VBA (10 examples)”

  Herby Schenker

  Hi Mark
  I like to save Excel Data from 7 different Worksheets into a single PDF File. Every Worksheets holds a Table on the same Position with the same number of Columns, but different numbers of rows.
  Ideal would be, when the export where able to merge the content on pages so that not every single Excel Table is on a separate Page.
  I would be infinitely grateful for any support, since I’ve been experimenting for days now Reply

  Excel Off The Grid

  Sorry, but Excel doesn’t let you do that natively. I think you would need to use VBA to create images of each range, then place those images below each other on a single sheet. When you print it will appear on a single page. Reply