How to Remove Gridlines in Excel

Sahil Aggarwal Published on November 3, 2025 Business/Data Analytics

The light lines that separate cells in Excel worksheet are known as gridlines. The light grey colored lines which separate cells in your Excel sheet are known as gridlines. But sometimes, for reports, presentations, dashboards, or printouts, gridlines may make the worksheet look cluttered. Removing gridlines gives a cleaner canvas, focusing attention where it matters. In this guide, you’ll find all the best methods—tested, clear, and compatible with modern Excel versions—to remove gridlines in Excel (or hide them), both on screen and in print.

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What Are Gridlines and Borders?

Before knowing about the methods it is very important to know what is the difference between gridlines and borders.

Gridlines: These are default, faint lines separating all cells in a worksheet (on screen). In terms of thickness or style these are not highly customizable.

Borders: These are manual lines which you can apply to cells or ranges. You can select the color, style, thickness of these, These are what you use if you want to simulate gridlines selectively or customise appearance.

Methods to Remove or Hide Gridlines in Excel

Here are several methods you can choose based on your version of Excel (PC, Mac, Excel Online) and whether you want the change on screen, in print, globally, or for specific cells.

Method 1: Using the View Tab (On‑Screen Only)

This is the fastest usual way to hide gridlines in an active worksheet. Here are the steps to remove gridlines in Excel:

Open your Excel workbook and select the worksheet you want to clean up.
Click the View tab in the ribbon.
In the Show group, find the checkbox for Gridlines.
Uncheck the Gridlines box

These steps will help to remove gridline from worksheet’s view but it will not affect printing. To restore these, you simply need to check the box again.

Method 2: Page Layout / Sheet Options (Control Screen & Print)

If you want that gridlines don’t appear on screen as well printing you can follow these steps:

With your worksheet open, click the Page Layout tab in the ribbon.
In Sheet Options (usually on the right side), locate the Gridlines section.
Uncheck View to hide gridlines on screen.
Uncheck Print to prevent gridlines appearing in printouts.
Always check Print Preview to confirm appearance.

Method 3: Use Keyboard Shortcut (Quick Toggle)

For speed most of the users use shortcuts. Here are shortcut keys for both windows and mac:

On Windows: Press Alt + W + V + G to toggle gridlines visibility.
On Mac: The equivalent is usually Option + Command + V + G (or via View tab).

Method 4: Change Cell Background (Selective Areas)

If you only want certain cells or ranges without visible gridlines (for example, for a clean section of a dashboard), you can use fill color. Here are the steps:

Select the cell range you want to “hide” gridlines in.
Go to Home tab → Fill Color (paint bucket).
Choose White or another light/non‑contrasting color.

A fill color removes gridlines behind those cells, since gridlines are visible only if the cell background is “No Fill” or transparent.

Method 5: Apply Borders Instead of Gridlines

If you want control over certain edges only or thicker/more visible lines, use borders. With the help of these steps the borders remain visible while printing and it is good for layout reports.

First hide gridlines using one of the above methods (View tab or Page Layout).
Select the cells or range you want outlined.
Go to Home → Borders tool.
Choose the type (All Borders, Outside Borders, Thick Box Border, etc.) and color.

Method 6: VBA / Automation (Advanced Users)

For repetitive tasks or large workbooks, a small macro can help.

Sample VBA Code:

Sub HideGridlines()
    ActiveWindow.DisplayGridlines = False
End Sub

How to use:

To use this press Alt + F11 (in windows) to open the visual basic editor. Then, insert a module and paste the code. After pasting, run the macro.

This hides gridlines for the active window/worksheet. You can also set it for multiple worksheets via loops in VBA.

Tips

If a worksheet has cell fills or background colors, the gridlines may already be invisible behind them. To restore, clear cell fill (Home → Fill Color → No Fill).
Changing gridline color: Excel allows changing the color of gridlines (but only for the entire worksheet). Go to File → Options → Advanced → Display options for this worksheet → Gridline color.
When multiple worksheets are selected (grouped), removing gridlines in one may apply to all; be cautious.

Conclusion

To make your worksheet look more polished you need to remove gridlines especially in case of presentation and printing. No matter if you are pro or just a beginner the above given methods will help you to provide flexibility. Clean spreadsheets help to focus better and provide a professional look.