How to Print Gridlines in Excel – Understanding the Purpose of Gridlines

Have you ever seen a print of a dataset without lines separating values in a worksheet?

Well, it often happens when you work with an Excel sheet and it turns out to be a piece of information with no boundaries. Actually, gridlines are light gray colored lines that separate data in the cells. Do you know how to print gridlines in Excel? Usually, when you print a worksheet, these gridlines do not appear on the paper. To print gridlines in Excel, you have to make sure these lines are visible on the print preview screen, or at least you must know how to change their color.

Before printing any content, people always preview the final document, so that it does not waste time. In Excel 2010 and 2013, you can manage to preview and print files in one location. It becomes difficult to read a dataset when the printed copy has no gridlines.

How to Print Gridlines in Excel?

Consider the following dataset and let’s understand how you can print gridlines in Excel.

Point out the absence of cell borders, or the light-colored lines that separate the cells. Most likely the printed dataset will look like this on the paper:

You see no gridlines appearing that separate the cells and data, that’s why it becomes difficult to recognize the rows or columns. For you, it might become even trickier when you are having larger datasets and multiple rows of data.

Let’s move on to the methods that show how to print gridlines in Excel:

Printing Gridlines Using Sheet Options

The most effortless way to show gridlines in a printout is using the “Sheet Options.” Below are some useful steps to follow:

1. Click on the Page Layout tab, you will see this option on the upper side of the Excel window.

2. Open the “Sheet Option” group placed under the Page Layout tab.
3. In this group, you will find two options, one for the Gridlines and the second for the Headings.
4. Under the Gridlines option, you will find two checkboxes named View and Print. Ensure that the checkbox placed next to “Print” is checked.
5. Following this step will make sure the printed file has gridlines.
6. Press CTRL + P if you want to print the sheet. For Mac users, press Cmd + P, or else you can move to File and then choose the Print option.

This step will take you to the print layout screen.

Now, you can see the print preview on the right side. Confirm OK if everything is in the way you want it to be.

Now, let’s move on to the next method of how to print gridlines in Excel.

Print Gridlines with the Page Layout Tab

This method is one of the most direct methods used to print excel reports. Using Sheet options to open the Page Layout tab of the ribbon will ultimately give you desired results.

Follow the steps given below to further proceed it:

1. Open the Page Layout tab from the ribbon.
2. Check the Print option placed under the Gridlines heading given in the Sheet Options section.
3. This step will make sure the gridlines are added to the printed sheet.

Now, the data is all set to print with gridlines in Excel. Go to the File tab to open the Print settings or you may use the CTRL + P from the keyboard to open the Print menu.

When you print the dataset, the result will look like this.

Printing Gridlines from Print Preview Mode

If the page is all set for printing, you will see the print preview given on the right-hand side of the screen. You will not see the gridlines on the page showing up. For this, you have to follow the steps given below:

1. Press CTRL + P if you are not in Print preview mode, or go to the File option to open Print. The Print Preview mode will open up.
2. On the left side, you will see a list of options placed under Settings. Open the Page Setup link given on the lower side.

3. Following this step will open up the Page Setup dialog box.
4. Click on the “Sheet” tab given at the upper side.

Check the box next to “Gridlines” under the Print section. Doing this procedure will ensure that pages include the gridlines when you print the sheet.

5. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.
6. Closing this box will bring you back to Print Preview mode.

Go ahead, if you need to print it out. Press the print button given on the left side.

That’s it – Try Now!

If you have made it here, you must have learned how to print gridlines in Excel. Sure, it would be a fun and simple thing to understand any procedure. With a little more practice, you can become an expert in any tool. However, you must be an intermediate-level expert in Microsoft Excel because it gives you the option to explore more.