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Microsoft Project, Project planning, Templates and Advice

Essential Microsoft Project: The 20% You Need to Know
  • Concise, focused guide that cuts through the clutter
  • Step-by-step instructions for creating a project plan in under a day
  • Master essential skills like work breakdowns and task sequencing
  • Real-world troubleshooting for 20 common scheduling challenges
  • Rapidly get up to speed if you're new to Microsoft Project
  • Includes glossary, support resources, and sample plans
The cover of the book 'Essential Microsoft Project: The 20% You Need to Know'

How to print your Microsoft Project plan

by | reviewed 31/03/2025
Cartoon of a stressed man crouching on an office floor, frantically picking up scattered Gantt chart papers falling from a printer.
A cartoon illustration of an overwhelmed office worker scrambling to gather Gantt chart pages pouring from a printer—an all-too-familiar scene when attempting to print a Microsoft Project plan, which often results in an excessive number of pages.

Master the art of printing complex Microsoft Project plans on a single page with our expert tips. Learn how to adjust column width, customize timescale tiers, and use strategic scaling options to transform multi-page printouts into professional, readable documents. Save time, paper, and frustration with these proven project management printing techniques.

A grid of 30 print preview thumbnails from Microsoft Project, displaying different views including Gantt charts, task tables, and progress metrics. Each thumbnail represents a printed page layout, showing project scheduling data, timelines, and performance tracking.
The print preview of a Microsoft Project plan, showing a typical situation where a plan will print across multiple pages both horizontally and vertically.

This image illustrates a common challenge when printing project plans from Microsoft Project: even relatively small projects can include a large number of tasks or span a long timeline, resulting in printed outputs that stretch across multiple A4 pages. As seen in the screenshot, the detailed breakdown of tasks, durations, and scheduling data quickly fills the available space. Without careful formatting—such as applying filters, adjusting timescales, or scaling the print layout—the Gantt chart and task table can become difficult to read when printed, with important information potentially split across multiple sheets.

Most projects benefit from a detailed project plan with task durations in days rather than weeks, resulting in hundreds of tasks, so getting your plan to fit to one page width can be tricky. These 5 tips will help!

Reduce the number of columns in the task table that will be printed

You can reduce the number of task columns that will be printed by adjusting the boundary between the task table and the Gantt chart view. Click on the grey bar between the table and the Gantt chart view and drag it to reveal or hide columns:

A screenshot from Microsoft Project showing a task table on the left and a Gantt chart on the right. A blue callout box points to the boundary between them with the instruction, “Drag the boundary to show or hide columns,” indicating how to adjust visible columns in the print layout.
To customize what appears in the printout, drag the boundary between the task table and Gantt chart in Microsoft Project. Adjusting this divider allows you to show or hide columns before printing.

Click on File, Print, then Print Preview to see the impact of your changes.

Experiment with timescale tiers in the Gantt chart view

Click on the timeline on the Gantt chart and extend the units shown. For example, you could change the timeline so that it shows quarters and months.

Under Timescale options check the Size menu and make sure it is showing 100% or less.

A screenshot of the Timescale settings window in Microsoft Project, with the “Bottom Tier” tab active. It shows options to adjust the time units (e.g., months), label format, and alignment. The Size field under Timescale options is highlighted, showing 186%. Annotations instruct users to adjust the Units and ensure the Size is 100% or less to fit more of the Gantt chart on a printed page.
In Microsoft Project, you can fit more of the Gantt chart on a printed page by adjusting the time Units under the Timescale tiers and ensuring the Size percentage is set to 100% or less. These settings are found under the Timescale options.

Use Scaling under Page Setup

You can significantly reduce the number of pages that will printed by using the scaling options under Page Setup.

Go to File, then Print, then Page Setup.

Screenshot of the Page Setup dialog box in Microsoft Project, specifically under the Page tab for Gantt Chart printing. It shows options for page orientation (portrait or landscape), scaling settings including Fit to a specified number of pages wide by tall, and paper size selection (set to A4). The window includes navigation tabs and print controls at the bottom.
The Page Setup dialog box in Microsoft Project offers options to control how your project plan prints. You can adjust page orientation, scale the Gantt chart to fit a specific number of pages, and select paper size to ensure optimal print layout.

Select Fit to under Scaling. Choose 1 page wide by x pages tall. This combination often works for me:

Orientation: Landscape
Scaling: Fit to 1 pages wide by 4–5 tall
Paper Size: A3

Use Print Filters to focus on essential information

Microsoft Project allows you to filter the tasks that will be printed, helping you to focus on the most essential information.

Go to View, then Filter, and select a predefined filter such as "Critical" to show only the critical path tasks, or "Incomplete Tasks" to focus on work still to be done.

You can also create custom filters by going to View, Filter, More Filters, and then clicking on "New" to define your own criteria.

Screenshot of Microsoft Project's View tab with a task list open. The Filter dropdown is expanded, showing options such as “Critical,” “Active Tasks,” “Completed Tasks,” and custom filters like “Tasks with no predecessor.” The task table displays hierarchical task data including WBS codes, task names, durations, and start dates.
Using filters can dramatically reduce the amount of information that needs to be printed while keeping the most important elements.

Create a custom view for printing

Creating a dedicated view specifically for printing can save time when you need to regularly share your project plan.

Screenshot of Microsoft Project displaying the More Views and Define New View dialog boxes. The More Views window lists various view options like Bar Rollup, Calendar, and Gantt Chart, which is currently selected. The Define New View window is prompting the user to choose between Single view and Combination view, with Single view selected. Part of a Gantt chart is visible in the background.
The image shows the process of defining a new view in Microsoft Project. The user has the "Gantt Chart" view selected from the "More Views" window and is choosing the "Single view" option in the "Define New View" dialog box.

Go to View, then View, and select "More Views." Click on "New" to create a custom view with only the fields and formatting you want to include in printed documents.

Screenshot of Microsoft Project showing the View Definition window for a custom view named PRINT Plan for Project Board. The view is set to display the Gantt Chart screen with the Baseline table, no group, and the Critical filter applied. The More Views window is visible behind it with Gantt Chart selected.
This image shows a custom view being created in Microsoft Project. The user is defining the view PRINT Plan for Project Board, which uses the Gantt Chart screen, the Baseline table, and filters tasks marked as critical.

Save this view with a name like "Print View" so you can quickly switch to it whenever you need to print your project plan.

Screenshot of the More Views dialog in Microsoft Project, with a custom view called PRINT Plan for Project Board selected from the list of available views such as Calendar, Detail Gantt, and Network Diagram.
The image shows the completed addition of the custom view PRINT Plan for Project Board to the list of available views in Microsoft Project. This view can now be applied or further edited from the More Views window.

This approach lets you maintain your detailed working view while having a streamlined version ready for sharing with stakeholders.


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