How to Remove Gridlines in Excel (and Other Grey Lines)

To remove gridlines in Excel, go to the View tab and clear the Gridlines check box in the Show group. The faded grey lines between the cells disappear from the current sheet right away. Check the box again to bring them back.

Here’s the quick version:

1. Open the sheet you want to remove the gridlines from.
2. Go to View > Show and clear the Gridlines check box.

Below, I’ll also show you the keyboard shortcut, how to hide gridlines on all sheets at once or only in specific cells, how to remove gridlines from a chart, and what to do when lines are still there after you hid the gridlines 👇

How to remove gridlines in Excel

Gridlines are the faded grey lines that outline the cells on a worksheet. Every new sheet shows them by default. To remove (hide) them, follow these steps:

1. Go to the sheet you want to remove the gridlines from 📝
2. Go to the View tab and clear the Gridlines check box in the Show group.

And whoosh! The gridlines disappear. There are no more grey lines on your sheet 🎯

Hiding gridlines doesn’t delete anything. Your data, formatting and borders stay exactly as they were.

You can also do it from the Page Layout tab: under Gridlines in the Sheet Options group, clear the View check box.

Only want to remove the gridlines from some cells? Then use a white fill color instead. I show you how in the section How to remove gridlines from specific cells below 🎨

How to show gridlines again

Changed your mind? You can bring the gridlines back with the same steps 🚀

1. Go to the sheet where you want the gridlines back.
2. Go to the View tab and select the Gridlines check box.

The gridlines come back to your Excel worksheet.

With the keyboard, press Alt, W, V, G again ✍

If the box is checked but some cells still have no gridlines, those cells probably have a fill color (even white). Select them and go to Home > Fill Color > No Fill.

Pro Tip!

The Gridlines setting only applies to the active sheet, not to the whole workbook.

To hide or show gridlines on several sheets at once, hold down Ctrl and click the sheet tabs (or right-click a tab and choose Select All Sheets). Then clear or select the Gridlines check box 💪

The setting is applied to all the selected sheets. When you’re done, right-click a sheet tab and choose Ungroup Sheets, so your next edits don’t hit every sheet.

How to remove gridlines from specific cells

The Gridlines check box always works on the whole sheet. To hide the gridlines in just a range of cells, fill the cells with white:

1. Select the cells.
2. Go to Home > Fill Color (the paint bucket) and pick White.

The gridlines inside and around the range disappear, while the rest of the sheet keeps its gridlines.

To get them back, select the cells and choose Home > Fill Color > No Fill.

Still see lines after hiding gridlines?

Not every line in Excel is a gridline. If lines are still there after you cleared the Gridlines box, it’s usually one of these:

• Cell borders. Borders are formatting, so they stay when you hide gridlines (and they print). Select the cells and go to Home > the arrow next to Borders > No Border.
• Dotted page break lines. Excel shows these automatic page breaks, for example after you’ve switched to Page Break Preview and back. Go to File > Options > Advanced, scroll to Display options for this worksheet and clear Show page breaks.
• Table or conditional formatting. Banded rows and lines from a table style or conditional formatting are formatting too. Change or clear the style instead.

How to remove gridlines from an Excel chart

Chart gridlines are separate from the worksheet gridlines. To remove them:

1. Click one of the gridlines inside the chart to select them.
2. Press Delete.

Or click the chart, go to Chart Design > Add Chart Element > Gridlines and click the gridline type that’s switched on to turn it off.

That’s it! Now what?

That’s all about showing and removing gridlines in Excel, folks. It’s just one check box, plus a few tricks for specific cells, charts and multiple sheets ✌

If you enjoyed learning this, we bet you’d love more about Excel. Some of my favorite functions from Excel include the VLOOKUP, SUMIF, and IF functions.

To learn them on the go, click here now and enroll in my 30-minute free email course. It is designed to teach you these (and many more) key Excel functions right away!

Other resources

The science of gridlines doesn’t just end here (with showing and removing). What about printing them?

By default Excel doesn’t print gridlines. But you can set it to printing gridlines by following the steps explained in our blog here.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shortcut to remove gridlines in Excel?

Press Alt, W, V, G, one key at a time. It toggles the Gridlines check box on the View tab, so the same keys show them again.

How do I remove gridlines in Excel on a Mac?

It works the same way: on the View tab, clear the Gridlines check box. You can also use the Page Layout tab and clear View under Gridlines.

How do I hide gridlines in Excel for the web?

Go to the View tab and clear the Gridlines check box in the Show group.

Do gridlines print?

No. Gridlines don’t print by default, so you don’t need to remove them before printing. If you want them on paper, go to Page Layout > Sheet Options and select Print under Gridlines. More in my guide to printing gridlines.

Can I change the color of the gridlines instead?

Yes. Go to File > Options > Advanced, scroll to Display options for this worksheet and pick a Gridline color. A lighter color is a nice middle ground if you still want some guidance on screen.