Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications

by Mary Ann Richardson | Jun 05, 2007 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, Microsoft Excel, gridline, worksheet, Microsoft Office Suite Excel Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: Gridlines in your Excel worksheets can be quite distracting. Mary Ann Richardson explains how to make gridlines invisible in Excel 2002, 2003, and 2007.

Your users may find it easier to work with your worksheet applications if they can't see the gridlines. For example, let's say you developed a worksheet that displays a new chart that compares monthly sales figures for the department each time a salesperson enters his/her monthly sales figures. Your worksheet includes instructions for using the spreadsheet, a bordered cell where they are to enter their data, and the changing chart.

To prevent the salespeople from working with the other cells in the worksheet, you can turn off the gridlines in Excel 2003 or Excel 2002, by following these steps:

1. Go to Tools | Options.
2. On the View tab in the Windows section, clear the Gridlines check box.
3. Click OK.

To turn off the gridlines in Excel 2007, follow these steps:

1. Click the View tab.

2. Clear the Gridlines check box in the Show/Hide section of the ribbon.

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Print/View all Posts Comments on this article

Works in Excel 2000 as well. igtddave@... | 06/06/07

Thanks for the tip! ky_ramirez@... | 06/09/07

Thank you toxic psychotic avenger | 06/06/07

Too "basic" for this forum - also does not prevent entries grahamrice@... | 06/06/07

You've missed the point Runo | 06/06/07

so true kevin_cshank@... | 06/08/07

Disagree and Agree satiutni | 10/28/09

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications ferdz_fq120@... | 06/12/07

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications awsompower@... | 06/18/07

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications rhyde@... | 06/20/07

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications augustine70_2000@... | 08/23/07

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications mathew.patrick@... | 09/19/07

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications rshousha | 05/15/09

RE: Turn off gridlines in your Excel applications arunkumarasp.net@... | 06/11/09

Year dot? satiutni | 10/28/09