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    Home»Office»Excel»Grid Lines Not Showing – 7 Ways to Fix It

    Grid Lines Not Showing – 7 Ways to Fix It

    Asmi DhakalBy Asmi DhakalAugust 9, 2023 Excel 4 Mins Read

    Gridlines serve as an essential component in any spreadsheet. You can neatly arrange your data in alignments of rows and columns using these lines. Therefore, it is reasonable to be concerned if they seemingly disappear from your spreadsheet.

    Normally, you can immediately resolve this issue by enabling gridlines from the View tab.

    If this view is already enabled, you must have applied certain cell formatting that is overlapping the gridlines.

    How to Fix Grid Lines Not Showing

    Before heading towards the rest of the fixes, check if gridlines are enabled from the View tab using the steps mentioned in the first solution.

    Enable the Gridline View

    You may have accidentally disabled the gridlines when making a different configuration. When gridlines are disabled, your entire sheet will appear to be blank. Fortunately, enabling gridlines is pretty simple in Excel.

    1. Go to the View tab.
    2. From the Show section, select the box next to Gridlines.
      Show gridlines Excel

    Discard Cell Fill

    If you’ve highlighted your cell using any color, Excel will apply the formatting over the gridline. This will make it seem like the gridlines have disappeared from the view. If shading your cells isn’t as important, you can discard the fill, and your gridlines appear back in view.

    1. Select the shaded cells.
    2. Go to the Home tab.
    3. Select the fly-out next to the fill bucket in the Font section.
    4. Choose No Fill.
      Apply No fill in cell

    Apply Borders Around the Shaded Cells

    Sometimes, shaded cell ranges are important to visually describe a data set. For example, you may highlight a range with the color red to draw more attention to it. In these cases, discarding the cell fill is not a viable option.

    As a workaround, you can apply borders, which substitute as gridlines on shaded cell ranges.

    1. Select your range.
    2. Go to the Home tab and select the fly-out next to the borders icon.
    3. Choose All Borders.
      Apply all Borders

    Edit Conditional Formatting Rules

    You will have to modify your conditional formatting rules if it fills the cell that matches the set criteria with a color. Instead of filling the cell with color, you can change the formatting of the text. This way, your data will still stand out without compromising the gridline view.

    1. Go to the Home tab.
    2. Select Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules.
      Conditional Formatting Manage Rules
    3. Choose your rule then click Edit Rule.
      Edit Conditional Formatting Rules
    4. Click on the Format button.
    5. Head to the Fill tab and select Clear.
      Clear Conditional Formatting Fill Format
    6. Switch to the Font tab and select a new effect.
    7. Click OK > OK > OK.

    Change Gridline Color

    If you’ve changed the color of your background into the color of your gridlines, your gridlines will disappear. 

    Similarly, if you’ve previously fiddled with the display settings of your spreadsheet, you could’ve accidentally changed the color of the gridlines to white. As this is the default background color of Excel’s spreadsheets, the gridlines will not show.

    You can change the color of your gridlines from advanced Excel options.

    1. Go to File > Options.
      Excel Option
    2. Head to Advanced from the sidebar.
    3. Select your worksheet next to Display options for this worksheet.
    4. Click on the fly-out menu next to Gridline color.
      Change Gridline color Excel
    5. Choose a color that does not clash with your background.
    6. Click OK.

    Change Border Color

    Just like gridline colors, if you’ve applied borders around your cell/range and they clash with the background, your gridlines will look like they’ve disappeared from that section.

    If your borders are of the same color as your background, you will need to change them to make them reappear on your sheet.

    1. Select the range you wish to change the border color for.
    2. Select the fly-out next to the borders icon.
    3. Click on Line Color and choose a different color.
      Excel Line Color
    4. Choose your preferred border.

    Unmerge Cells

    In Excel, you can merge two or more cells into a single cell. When you merge too many cells with each other, your cell size increases, giving it the appearance of missing gridlines.

    If you have accidentally merged your cells, you can unmerge them from the Home tab.

    1. Select the merged cell.
    2. Go to the Home tab.
    3. From the Alignment section, click on Merge & Center.
      Unmerge CElls

    Gridlines Not Appearing While Printing?

    Excel hides gridlines by default when printing. This is why your gridlines do not appear when printing. However, you tweak a configuration to make Excel print gridlines around your data set.

    1. Go to the View tab.
    2. In the Show section, check the box next to Print.
      Print in Sheet Options Excel
    Excel Basics
    Asmi Dhakal

      Asmi is a content writer specializing in MS Office. She loves writing Excel-related content to assist other users to learn their way around the program. She started using Excel when she first entered the industry as a marketing intern. Soon, she realized that learning the often-overlooked spreadsheet program was no piece of cake. In her articles, she attempts to brief out complex topics to help beginner to intermediate-level Excel users. Asmi uses Excel for everything, including creating a grocery list to managing her personal finance. She’s a bit dramatic when it comes to the Flash Fill feature; so much so that could write a eulogy out of it. When she’s not working, you’ll find her learning a new recipe, or cleaning up her mess (out of the failed recipe).

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      Table of ContentsToggle Table of ContentToggle
      • How to Fix Grid Lines Not Showing
        • Enable the Gridline View
        • Discard Cell Fill
        • Apply Borders Around the Shaded Cells
        • Edit Conditional Formatting Rules
        • Change Gridline Color
        • Change Border Color
        • Unmerge Cells
      • Gridlines Not Appearing While Printing?
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