Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
When Kenneth prints a worksheet, 99% of the time he prefers printing it with gridlines. However, the gridlines check box (on the Sheet tab of the Page Setup dialog box) is not selected by default. Kenneth wonders if there is a way to change this setting so that it is always selected.
There are actually a couple of different ways you can approach this task. If you want all of your future workbooks or worksheets to have the gridlines turned on by default, start by create a default workbook and worksheet that Excel will rely on when creating these. How you do this has been covered in other ExcelTips, such as this one:
Creating Default Formatting for Workbooks and Worksheets
Note that this approach affects all newly created worksheets or workbooks; it doesn't affect any that were previously created. If you want to affect those, you might want to consider a simple macro to turn on the gridlines. This could be assigned to either a shortcut key or to the Quick Access Toolbar. Here's an example of one that turns on the gridlines:
Sub GridlinesOn() ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintGridlines = True End Sub
That's it—a single line. You can, if desired, also get fancier with the macro so that it toggles the gridlines and displays their state. Here's an example:
Sub GridlinesToggle() Dim sStatus As String sStatus = "OFF" With ActiveSheet.PageSetup .PrintGridlines = Not .PrintGridlines If .PrintGridlines Then sStatus = "ON" End With Msgbox "The gridlines are now " & sStatus End Sub
Finally, you could also create a macro that makes sure the gridlines are turned on and then prints the current worksheet. This requires adding a single line to the earlier macro that turned on the gridlines:
Sub PrintGridlines() ActiveSheet.PageSetup.PrintGridlines = True ActiveSheet.PrintOut End Sub
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (13515) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.
Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!
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