Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 11, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
The gridlines help you track information on the screen easier and to locate cells quickly. Normally the gridlines are shown in black, but you may want to make them some other stylish color. If you want to change the gridline color, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Advanced options of the Excel Options dialog box.
You can specify different gridline colors for each worksheet in a workbook.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8728) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Changing Gridline Color.
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2020-05-28 16:54:48
Peter Atherton
With regards to John Mann's post: it works on grouped sheets in 2016
2020-05-27 14:01:15
Allen
It really is there Katherine -- Click File and then, at the left side of the screen look all the way near the bottom and you'll see "Options." Click that.
-Allen
2020-05-27 13:21:31
Katherine
There is no "options" in the back menu of excel in office 365 so this doesn't work for 365.
2019-10-19 18:28:06
John Mann
I hadn't paid much attention to this option - so much so that I had forgoten it exists. I've just been experimenting a bit with this option and note that it doesn't work on grouped worksheets (at least not in my copy of Excel 2010).
It does occur to me that it would be usefull to use the same colour for the grid and the tabs. This could help with keeping track of which sheet we are working on when we have several sheets with similar (or identical) layout. I have often missed the thin but obvious line across the screen matching the tab colour used by Lotus 1-2-3. While it would not be a terible hardship to manually make that combination, it would be nice to automate it.
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