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Excel - Deleting Borders Deletes Gridlines - Episode 659

567 views · Published 20 February 2009 · 2:18 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

Microsoft Excel Tutorial: While Deleting Borders in Excel, the Gridlines Also Disappeared.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In today's episode, we'll be discussing a common issue that many Excel users face - accidentally deleting gridlines while trying to remove borders. This question was sent in by Greg from Indianapolis, and I'm here to help him and anyone else who may have encountered this problem.

So, let's dive into the issue. Greg received a spreadsheet from someone and noticed that there were some strange borders on it. He wanted to get rid of them, so he selected the cells and went to the borders drop down to choose "none". However, to his horror, this also removed the gridlines. As he put it, "it just looks wrong". But don't worry, Greg, we'll get to the root cause of this and fix it together.

The root cause of this problem lies in the formatting of the cells. Someone had applied a yellow fill to a cell and then wanted to remove it. They chose white from the paint bucket drop down, which also removed the gridlines. Now, the person must have gone through a tedious process of going to the "Format cells" option, selecting the border tab, and choosing a light gray border to bring back the gridlines. But, as I'll show you, there's a much simpler solution.

Instead of choosing white from the paint bucket drop down, simply select "no fill" from the top of the drop down. This will bring back the gridlines without the need for any additional steps. So, for anyone who has accidentally removed gridlines while trying to delete borders, just remember to choose "no fill" from the paint bucket drop down to bring them back.

I hope this tip was helpful for you, Greg, and for all our viewers out there. And as a bonus, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. We'll be taking a break on Monday and Tuesday, but we'll be back with another MrExcel netcast on the 26th. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next time for more Excel tips and tricks.

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Greg from Indiana sends in a great mystery today. He removed some borders and somehow the gridlines were removed as well. Well take a look at the pain someone must have went through, when the solution is right in the paint bucket dropdown. Episode 659 shows you how.

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction and question from Greg
(00:27) Issue with borders and grid lines
(00:39) Turning off borders also turns off grid lines
(00:49) Root cause of issue
(01:08) Solution: use "no fill" option
(01:36) Recap and final solution for Greg's issue
(01:48) Friday before Christmas
(01:59) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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Join the MrExcel Message Board discussion about this video at https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/1153566/

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Join the MrExcel Message Board discussion about this video at https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/1152236/

Excel - Deleting Borders Deletes Gridlines - Episode 659

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