How to Add Grid Lines to Your Excel Spreadsheet

Last Updated: October 28, 2022

Grid lines, which are the faint lines that divide cells on a worksheet, are displayed by default in Microsoft Excel. You can enable or disable them by worksheet, and even choose to see them on printed pages. Gridlines are different than cell borders, which you can add to cells and ranges and customize with line styles and colors. This wikiHow article will show you how to show gridlines in your Excel worksheet, both on the screen and printed, as well as how to add cell borders to make your data stand out.

Things You Should Know

On Windows, open your Excel sheet. Go to File > Options > Advanced > "Display options for this worksheet". Choose your worksheet and select "Show gridlines."
On Mac, open your Excel sheet. Click the Page Layout tab. Find the "Gridlines" panel and check the "View" box.
Add borders to cells in both OS's by selecting your cells and clicking Home. Click the arrow next to the Borders icon and choose a style.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Enabling Gridlines in Windows

1
Open the workbook you want to edit. Gridlines always appear on worksheets by default, but you can enable or disable them for any individual worksheet in your settings.
- If the issue is that you can see gridlines on your worksheet but aren't seeing them on printed pages, you can just enable gridlines when printing. Skip to Step 8 to learn how.
- If you see gridlines on the page but want to add more obvious borders around certain cells or ranges, see Adding Cell Borders in Windows and macOS.
2
Click the File menu and select Options. The Excel Options window will expand.

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3
Click the Advanced tab. It's in the left panel.
4
Scroll down to the "Display options for this worksheet" area. It's in the right panel just after the "Display options for this workbook" group.
5
Select the sheet that doesn't have gridlines from the "Display options for this worksheet" menu. If you already see the name of the active worksheet here, you can skip this step.
6
Check the box next to "Show gridlines." If gridlines were hidden, the checkbox would be blank. Clicking the box re-enables gridlines.
- If there was already a check next to "Show gridlines" but you don't see lines on your sheet, the color may be too light. Click the "Gridline color" menu to choose a darker gray color.
7
Click OK. Gridlines are now visible on your worksheet.
8
Show gridlines when printing (optional). Gridlines, by default, do not appear on printed versions of your worksheet. If you want to see gridlines when you print, you'll need to enable them in your Page Setup options. Here's how:
- Click the name of the sheet you want to print at the bottom of your workbook.
- Click the Page Layout tab at the top.
- Click the small arrow at the bottom-right corner of the "Page Setup" panel in the toolbar.
- Click the Sheet tab.
- Check the box next to "Gridlines" under "Print."
- Click OK. Now when you print this sheet, gridlines will appear on each page.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Enabling Gridlines on macOS

1
Open the workbook you want to edit. Gridlines always appear on worksheets by default, but you can enable or disable them for any individual worksheet in your settings.
- If you already see gridlines on the page but want to add more obvious borders around certain cells or ranges, see Adding Cell Borders in Windows and macOS.
- If your workbook is not open to the sheet that doesn't have gridlines, click the name of that sheet at the bottom of the workbook to open it now.
2
Click the Page Layout tab. It's at the top of Excel.^{[1]
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3
Check the box next to "View" on the "Gridlines" panel. This is in the toolbar at the top of Excel. As long as this box is checked, gridlines will be visible for this worksheet on the screen.
4
(optional) Check the box next to "Print" to print gridlines. If you want to see gridlines on the printed version of your worksheet, this option ensures they'll show up.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Adding Cell Borders in Windows and macOS

1
Open your workbook in Excel. Gridlines appear on all sheets by default, but they may not be bold enough to make your data stand out. If you want to surround certain data with more visible lines, you can add borders to those cells.
2
Select the range of cells you want to add borders to. You will be able to add a border that surrounds the entire selected range, and/or around each individual cell in the range.^{[2]
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3
Click the Home tab. It's at the top of Excel.
4
Click the arrow next to the Borders icon. The Borders icon is a dotted grid on the "Font" panel at the top of Excel. A list of border styles will appear.
5
Select a border style. If you want to add darker grid lines that surround each selected cell, choose All Borders. Otherwise, choose any of the other options, such as Outside Borders, which adds one solid border around the selected range.
6
Click the arrow next to the "Borders" icon again. Now that you've inserted some cell borders, you can customize how they look.
7
Click More Borders…. It's at the bottom of the menu.
8
Choose your border options.
- To customize the actual line used in the border (such as changing a solid line to a dotted line), select one of the line styles from the Styles area.
- To make the border a different color, choose a color from the Color menu.
9
Click OK. This adds your border preferences to the selected range.
- To remove cell borders, click the arrow next to the Borders icon in the toolbar, and then choose No Border.
- Unlike gridlines, cell borders are always shown on printed sheets.