How to Remove the Grid Lines in Google Sheets

Gridlines can sometimes become extra confusing, especially when using many images on your spreadsheet. For pure table work, they’re fine, but that doesn’t mean that your entire worksheet needs to be one big table of individual cells. You can hide gridlines or use them selectively to your advantage, even in Google Sheets.

How to Remove Sheets Gridlines Using a Browser

Removing gridlines is not hard if you use Google Sheets in your browser. However, it’s slightly different than doing it in Excel.

1. Go to the “View” menu.
   
2. Unselect the Gridlines option.
   

How to Remove Sheets Gridlines Using the App

If you’re not using the browser, here’s how you can remove gridlines from the Google Sheets app:

1. Select a tab. Tap on the “dropdown arrowhead” next to the tab’s name.
   
2. Scroll down and turn off the “Gridlines” option.
   

Google Sheets Gridlines Still Appear when Printing

Although Google Sheets understands that gridlines can be distracting when working on a spreadsheet, it doesn’t hide them forever. If you use the previous two methods, your “printed” spreadsheet will still have gridlines. Therefore, you need to remove this option from the print formatting settings.

1. Go to “File -> Print.”
   
2. Click the “Formatting” dropdown in the right pane and uncheck “Show gridlines.”
   
3. Tap or click the “Next” button to continue and print your spreadsheet without gridlines.
   

Add Selective Gridlines to Google Sheets

Since Google Sheets lets you customize like crazy, you can also add gridlines to select parts of your spreadsheet.

This can be very useful if you want gridlines to highlight dates or timestamps better. You can also use it to accentuate tables further but still make it so that other areas of the spreadsheet have free-flowing text on them.

Selective gridlines can also help you use charts and tables on the same worksheet. It’s not always just about preference. Sometimes, gridlines can be very helpful. Try different things until you find something visually appealing and highly relevant to your data and spreadsheet.

To add gridlines to specific areas, not the whole worksheet, you first have to disable gridlines altogether, as shown in the previous process. Afterward, you can select a range of cells and apply a specific border to them from the Border/Gridlines button in the toolbar.

Regarding customization, it’s clear that Google Sheets is much more than meets the eye. Even something as generic as table gridlines can be used in many ways. Sometimes, the feature can be used to your advantage and sometimes to your detriment. Now that you know how to easily manipulate gridlines in Google Sheets, it’s time to create better-looking spreadsheets for personal use, employees, coworkers, and even clients.