Gridlines in Excel are the horizontal and vertical gray lines that differentiate between cells in a worksheet. The gridlines guide users to differentiate between the specific cells and read the data in an organized manner. They are also helpful to users in navigating through the worksheet columns and rows easily.
Users would face difficulties reading the data due to the lack of organization, without gridlines. Gridlines are visible on the entire worksheet and cannot be applied to a specific region of the worksheet and therefore shouldn't be confused with borders. Also, when printing a worksheet, the gridlines are not printed on paper.
Understanding Excel Gridlines
Gridlines in Excel apply, by default, in the whole worksheet or workbook, and cannot be applied to a specific section of the worksheet. If you want to make a certain section of the worksheet different from the rest, use border lines to make customizations to specific cells or groups of cells.
Gridlines are displayed in a workbook using a grey color that is applied by default. However, one can change the gridline colors by Going to the File tab, Options, Advanced, and then clicking Grid Color. You can select the color you want to use from there.
Procedures for Removing Grid Lines:
By Using the Page Layout Tab
1. The easiest way to remove gridlines in Excel is to use the Page Layout tab.
2. Click the Page Layout tab to expand the page layout commands and then go to the Gridlines section.
3. Below Gridlines, uncheck the view box.
Remove gridlines by applying background fill
Another way to remove gridlines is to use the Fill Color feature. You can apply a fill color to a specific region of the worksheet or to the entire worksheet and the gridlines will disappear. If you want to apply the Fill Color feature to the entire worksheet:
1. Click Ctrl + A to select all the cells in the worksheet.
2. Go to the Home tab then to the Font group and open Font Color in the dropdown list. Choose the color "White" from the list.
The grid lines will automatically be hidden
Note. Applying a white background hides the gridlines but shows the cell data. If you want to make the gridlines undo the changes, repeat the same procedure but pick the No Fill option under the Font group.
Removing gridlines from Multiple Worksheets
By default, removing gridlines only applies to the specific worksheet and not to other open worksheets within the workbook. For the command to apply to all worksheets, you must first
1. Select all the worksheet tabs in the workbook before removing the gridlines.
2. Hold the Control button and select all the worksheets, to put the worksheets in group mode.
3. Use the Fill Color feature or uncheck the View option under the Page Layout tab to remove gridlines.
Note: Once you have completed making the changes, ungroup the worksheets by right-clicking on the tab and selecting the Ungrouping option. If the pages remain grouped, it means that any changes made to the current worksheet will apply to all the selected worksheets.