How to Print One Tab in Google Docs

Your Google Doc is split into tabs (say, Notes, Budget and Schedule) and you only want paper, or a PDF, of one of them. Open that tab, go to File > Print, choose Print current tab, then click Print in your browser’s print window. Only the open tab goes to the printer. This covers Google Docs in a desktop browser; phone apps work differently and are covered near the end.

What a tab is in Google Docs (and what it is not)

Document tabs are a newer Google Docs feature that lets one file hold several separate sections, each with its own pages. They live in the left panel of the document. If you don’t see that panel, click Show tabs & outlines at the top left of the document, and the list of tabs (and any subtabs under them) appears.

A tab is not the same thing as a page, and it is not a block of highlighted text. One tab can run for ten pages, and another can be half a page long. That difference matters for printing, because the print option Google provides works on whole tabs. If you try to print a tab by typing page numbers, you will often get the wrong pages, since the page numbers you see belong to whichever tab is open.

A few details from Google’s help page on using document tabs in Google Docs are useful to know before you print:

• Tabs can be nested up to 3 levels deep (a tab, a subtab, and a subtab of that subtab).
• A document can hold up to 100 tabs.
• Each tab has a Tab options menu (the three dots next to its name) with choices such as Add subtab, Duplicate, Rename and Delete.

If the left panel lists only one tab, the document has a single tab, so Print current tab and Print all tabs print the same thing.

Print a single tab from Google Docs

These steps are for Google Docs in a computer browser such as Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox.

1. Open the document in Google Docs.
2. If the tab list is hidden, click Show tabs & outlines at the top left.
3. Click the tab you want to print so its content is showing in the main editing area. For a subtab, click the subtab itself.
4. Click File in the menu bar, then Print. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + P (Windows, ChromeOS) or Cmd + P (Mac) gets you to the same place.
5. Google Docs asks which part of the document to print. Choose Print current tab.
6. Your browser’s print window opens with a preview. Pick your printer, check the preview to make sure it shows the right tab, then click Print.

The preview is the best check you have. Scroll through it and confirm the first page starts with the content of the tab you picked. If it starts with a different tab, close the window, click the correct tab in the left panel, and repeat the steps.

Settings like copies, color, paper size and two-sided printing are set in the browser’s print window or your printer’s own dialog, not in Google Docs, so their names depend on the browser and printer you use. For duplex printing in particular, see how to print double-sided from Google Docs.

Save one tab as a PDF

There are two routes to a PDF of a single tab. Both give you a file you can email, upload or print later.

Route 1: Download the tab from Google Docs

This is the route Google documents for exporting, and it works for PDF, Word and the other download formats.

1. Click the tab you want so it is open.
2. Click File > Download, then pick a file type, such as PDF Document (.pdf) or Microsoft Word (.docx).
3. A dialog opens with a Tab setting. The default is Current Tab, which is what you want. (Switch it to All Tabs only if you want the full document.)
4. Click Export. The file downloads to your computer’s usual downloads folder.

This route is handy when you need a Word copy of one tab to send to someone who doesn’t use Google Docs, since the print window can only make PDFs.

Route 2: Use the browser’s print window

1. Follow the printing steps above and choose Print current tab.
2. In the browser’s print window, change the printer (often labeled Destination or Printer) to the save-as-PDF option your browser offers. In Chrome it is usually called Save as PDF; on a Mac, the PDF button at the bottom of the print dialog does the same job.
3. Click Save, choose a folder and a file name, and save.

Which should you pick? Route 1 is the more direct choice for a clean file, and it doesn’t depend on browser labels. Route 2 is useful when you are already in the print window and just decide you’d rather keep a file than a printout.

If you plan to email the result, the steps in sending a Google Docs file as a PDF attachment skip the separate download step entirely.

Print or export every tab

When you want the whole document, pick Print all tabs at the same prompt instead of Print current tab. For a download, choose All Tabs in the Tab setting of the File > Download dialog before you click Export.

Expect a longer printout than the page count you see on screen. Each tab has its own pages, so a document with five tabs of three pages each comes out to fifteen pages or more. An all-tabs printout or export may also add tab names or start each tab on a new page, so check the preview before printing a large job.

Google documents only two choices here: the current tab or all tabs. There is no option to tick two or three tabs out of a larger set. See the workaround below if you need that.

Print only part of a tab

Google Docs has no “print selection” button. Highlighting text and then opening the print window still prints the whole tab (or the whole document), not just the highlighted lines. You have two practical options.

Copy the part you need into a new document

1. In the tab, select the text, tables or images you want to print.
2. Press Ctrl + C (Cmd + C on a Mac) to copy.
3. Create a blank document (in Google Docs, File > New > Document, or start one from the Docs home screen).
4. Press Ctrl + V (Cmd + V) to paste.
5. Print the new document with File > Print. Because it has a single tab, there is nothing else to choose.

This same trick handles the “two tabs out of five” case: paste the content of each tab you want into one new document, one after the other, and print that. If you want each piece to start on a fresh sheet, add a break between them; inserting a page break in Google Docs shows how.

Formatting usually survives copy and paste, but long tables and images can shift slightly. Glance through the new document before printing.

Print a page range from a long tab

If the tab is long and you only need some of its pages, choose Print current tab, then use the browser’s page selection setting (often labeled Pages, with a Custom choice where you can type something like 2-4). Those numbers refer to the pages in the preview of that tab, so read them off the preview, not off the page count you saw while editing a different tab.

Page ranges are a browser feature, not a Google Docs one, so the label and location can vary between Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox.

Printing tabs from a phone or tablet

The Google Docs apps for Android, iPhone and iPad let you switch between tabs, but Google’s help pages for those apps don’t describe a current tab or all tabs choice when printing or downloading. Results can differ from the desktop behavior described above.

For a reliable single-tab printout, the simplest approach is to do it from a computer browser. Another option is to copy the tab’s content into a new document in the app and print that. For general phone printing steps, see printing in Google Docs on a phone.

When printing one tab doesn’t go to plan

You never see a Print current tab choice

If File > Print goes straight to your browser’s print window, the document may have only one tab, or the tabs option may not be available for your account yet. A single-tab document prints in full either way. If you expected tabs, open the left panel with Show tabs & outlines and check whether the sections are real tabs or just headings in the outline. Headings are not tabs, and they can’t be printed separately.

The wrong tab printed

Print current tab uses whichever tab is open in the editing area at the moment you choose Print. Click the right tab in the left panel first, wait for its content to load, and then open the print menu.

The subtab content is missing or extra

Google’s help page doesn’t say whether printing a parent tab also includes its subtabs. Check the preview after choosing Print current tab. If you get more or less than you wanted, open the exact tab or subtab you need and print that, or copy the content you want into a new document.

The preview is blank or stuck loading

Close the print window and try again after the document finishes loading. If that doesn’t help, try another browser or download the tab as a PDF (File > Download) and print the PDF instead. Pop-up blockers and some browser extensions can interfere with print windows, so a private browsing window with extensions off is a quick test.

Nothing comes out of the printer

If the preview looks right but nothing prints, check that the right printer is selected in the print window, that it is on and connected, and try printing a test page from your computer’s printer settings. Downloading the tab as a PDF and printing that file is a quick way to tell a printer problem from a Google Docs one.

Pages break in awkward places

A heading at the bottom of one page with its content on the next is a page break problem rather than a printing problem. Add a break where a new page should start, or take out ones you no longer need with the steps for removing page breaks in Google Docs, then print the tab again.

Printing tabs in Google Docs

Can I print the list of tab names itself?

Not directly. Google’s print options cover tab content (the current tab or all tabs), not the tab list in the left panel. If you need an index, type the tab names into a short list at the top of the first tab (or in a separate document) and print that.

Does Print current tab print comments or suggestions?

Google’s tab help page doesn’t cover comments or suggested edits. If the document has suggestions you don’t want on paper, accept or reject them before printing so the tab shows only final text, then confirm the result in the preview.

Can I share just one tab instead of printing it?

Each tab has a Copy link option in its Tab options menu, which gives a link that opens the document at that tab. Anyone who opens that link still needs access to the document, and they can see every tab, so for a single tab only, download that tab as a PDF or Word file and send the file.

Will the tab print with the same page setup as the rest of the document?

Page size, margins and orientation come from the document’s page setup, so the printed tab follows the same settings as the rest of the file unless you change them. Check File > Page setup if the printout looks different from what you expected.

Once you have the tab you need on paper or in a PDF, it’s worth organizing the rest of the file so future printouts are just as easy; the walkthrough on using tabs in Google Docs covers adding, renaming and arranging them.