Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Changing the Color of Worksheet Gridlines.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 9, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Most people using Excel leave the gridlines visible so that they can easily see where the various cells are. By default, the gridlines are a light gray. You can easily change the gridlines to a different color by following these steps:
Figure 1. The Advanced options of the Excel Options dialog box.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6210) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Changing the Color of Worksheet Gridlines.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Want to make fast work of moving from one worksheet to another? Here's how to do the task when you have a lot of ...
Discover MoreIf you need to copy a cell from one worksheet to a bunch of other worksheets, the work can quickly get tedious. Make the ...
Discover MoreExcel makes it relatively easy to copy worksheets to a different workbook. That doesn't mean it couldn't be made simpler ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2021-02-06 14:28:37
John Mann
This bears further investigation on my part - thanks for idea. When I set the grid lines colour to a non-standard colour, I usually match them to the colour of the tab for the worksheet. Setting the grid colour to match the tab colour is an attempt to replace the very nice feature in Lotus 1-2-3 whereby the tab colour o the entire active sheet is reproduced as a line across the top of the sheet. (1-2-3 has it's tabs across the top, instead of wasting space in the status bar. (see Figure 1 below)
It would seem to me, therefor, that modifying the macro to pick up the colour of the worksheet tab, and then applying it tothe gridlines of not just a range of cells but to the entire sheet would be very useful. Something to experiment with while I'm learning macros.
Figure 1. Lotus 1-2-3 tabs
2021-01-31 06:55:02
Harold Druss
For John Mann:
How about a macro?
Sub SetBackgroundColor()
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = Range("D1, D3, D5, D7")
With rng
.Interior.ColorIndex = 8
.BorderAround ColorIndex:=1, Weight:=xlThin
End With
End Sub
2021-01-30 16:51:12
John Mann
I've used this option on a number of occasions for various reasons - practical or just to look pretty.
It doesn't solve a problem I've encountered with Excel 2010 (can't write about other versions) where when I set a background colour for a range of cells, the grid-lines disappear. If I want them to be visible within a coloured ranged, I have to actually format the range with external and internal borders of the desired colour. On some occasions I've done that by selecting the entire sheet, then setting the border colours.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Comments