Planning: Creating Your Own Planner Pages with Excel

Hello! The more you plan, the more you may or may not like specific layouts in your planner. So I will show you how to create and make your own planner pages!

Disclaimer: these inserts are for binder style planners in which planner pages can be added or removed. And this is the way to create and design them with the use of Microsoft Excel. This is not the only way to create inserts, just one of the options out there!

Here is the way to create inserts in Microsoft Excel. I like the way the grids make everything spaced out evenly and boxes are easily added. I also like my inserts very plain and simple as I add color and extras later when planning. So Excel works perfectly, but more colorful inserts can be easily made in Photoshop or other artistic programs as well. But this guide is how to make them in Excel.

Step 1: Open Excel and create a new worksheet.

Step 2: Go into File –> Page Setup –> Options. Here you can adjust the canvas or page size. By clicking the “paper size” drop-down menu you can create custom paper sizes to fit any size planner. So click “manage custom sizes” and put in the dimensions you want. In the Page Setup menu, you can also set margins and orientation of your page. Once you hit “done’ you will see blue lines outlining the page boundaries of the dimensions for the values you set per page.

Step 3: Now that you have the page size marked, you can now fill in your information. You can use the standard grid layout or by clicking the small icon in the lower left hand corner, you can activate page layout view (shown in picture).

Step 3: Page layout view.

Step 4: Now you can start designing! Shrink and expand the grids to make the perfect size boxes and sections for your planner. This step is all up to you and how or what you want your pages to look like. Be creative and create personalized pages! I use the border shortcut on the top menu bar for quick borders to make boxes. You can also adjust the color, style of line, more detailed borders, and box fills from the Format –> Cells –> Border from your top menu bar. So get creative!

Step 5: Once you are done making your page all you have left is to print it out, cut it to size (if needed), and hole punch it! And there you go! Custom pages to match your specific planning style!

Here is a small example of what you can create! Here is just a sample month on one page!

Tips:

  • Don’t forget to leave room on the edges or margins for your hole punches. If you create your insert edge to edge your hole puncher might punch right through your design, so make sure to leave room on the edge.

I hope you enjoyed this guide. Good luck making your own pages! Let me know if you have any other tips or questions on making your own custom pages! Have fun!