Dotted lines in Excel can appear for a few reasons, such as page breaks, cell borders, or gridlines. While they serve a purpose, dotted lines can also be distracting and make your spreadsheet look messy. Here’s how to remove dotted lines in Excel using a few simple methods.
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What Causes Dotted Lines in Excel
There are three main reasons you might see dotted lines on your Excel sheet:
Page Breaks
Page breaks display as dotted lines and show where a printed page ends. Excel inserts these automatically based on your print settings.
Cell Borders
Changing the cell border style to be dotted lines can cause dotted lines to appear within cells.
Gridlines
Faint dotted lines that appear between all cells are actually gridlines. These mark cell boundaries.
Remove Page Break Dotted Lines
Page break dotted lines are the most common. To remove:
- Select the File tab
- Choose Options
- Go to the Advanced section
- Uncheck the box next to Show page breaks
- Click OK
This will instantly remove the page break dotted lines from your sheet.
Clear Dotted Cell Borders
To remove dotted lines caused by cell borders:
- Select the cells with dotted borders
- On the Home tab select Borders > No Border
This clears any existing border formatting, including dotted lines.
Hide Gridlines
To remove the dotted gridlines visible in the entire sheet:
- Select the View tab
- Uncheck Gridlines in the Show section
The faint dotted lines between every cell will disappear.
When to Remove Dotted Lines
There are a few instances when removing dotted lines can help:
- Printing – Dotted lines may not print well. Removing them gives a cleaner print.
- Presentation – Dotted lines can make a spreadsheet look cluttered and unprofessional.
- Readability – Busy dotted lines could distract from the actual data.
However, dotted lines do serve a functional purpose in Excel. Only remove when necessary.
Tips for Removing Dotted Lines
- Closing and reopening the Excel sheet will remove dotted lines
- If dotted lines reappear, check your print settings
- Gridlines make editing easier, so only hide when needed
- Add borders back in after clearing, if you want lines around cells
- Use the Select All button before clearing borders to remove lines from the entire sheet
When Not to Remove Dotted Lines
There are also some instances when you’ll want to keep dotted lines:
- Printing – If you need to print on multiple pages, keep page breaks on
- Organization – Gridlines and borders help differentiate cells and data
- Guidance – Borders can guide the reader’s eye to important figures
- Editing – Gridlines help when selecting cells and ranges to edit
Only remove dotted lines when they truly hinder your spreadsheet’s effectiveness.
More Tips for Excel Formatting
Proper formatting is key to Excel spreadsheets that are easy to read and analyze. Here are some other quick formatting tips:
- Use cell styles to apply formatting to ranges of cells quickly
- Emphasize headings with text formatting like bold, underline, or font color
- Narrow wide columns and widen narrow ones for readability
- Apply conditional formatting to highlight cells that meet criteria
- Add data visualizations like charts and sparklines
- Use keyboard shortcuts to format text and cells faster
Taking time with formatting makes your Excel sheets look clean, professional, and polished.
