Organize with Colors and Borders

Adding borders, patterns, and shading can enhance the readability and visual appeal of your worksheet.

Apply borders and colors by using the toolbar buttons, or click Cells (Format menu), and then click the Border or Patterns tab.

Want to turn off gridlines?   The gridlines on your screen are different from borders. Gridlines make it easier to distinguish individual cells on screen, but you can turn them off: click Options (Tools menu). On the View tab, clear the Gridlines check box. Want to print gridlines?   Gridlines are normally turned off for printing. If you want to see gridlines in your printouts, click Page Setup (File menu). On the Sheet tab, select the Gridlines check box. Use diagonal borders   as unused cell indicators or as worksheet design elements. Click Cells (Format menu). On the Border tab, click one of the diagonal border buttons. To use a diagonal border to create a corner label, split the text horizontally by pressing ALT+ENTER, and position the text horizontally by using spaces.

Rotated Text and Borders

Often, data in a column is very narrow, but the column label is much wider. Instead of putting up with unnecessarily wide columns or abbreviated labels, you can link right and left cell borders with rotated text.

Select a cell containing a label that you want to rotate, and then click Cells (Format menu). On the Border tab, click the line style you want, and then apply borders to the left and right sides of the cell. On the Alignment tab, use the orientation controls to pick the angle you want.

Format Painter button

You can use the Format Painter button to copy the format of the cell and apply it to other cells with wide labels. Then you can adjust text alignment options and column widths to fine-tune the overall appearance.

Office Assistant button

Want to know more?   Look up Getting Results - Worksheet in Help.