Dotted Gridlines

Copper Contributor

I apologize if this has been asked and answered, I searched the forum but could not find anything similar to my question.

 

I had to change the color of the gridlines on my Office365 Excel subscription because the default lines print entirely too dark to read our spreadsheets effectively. Unfortunately, this means I now have the dreaded dotted line syndrome. I have gone into Microsoft Visual Basic and turned on edit mode and changed the grid points to numerous sizes, with very little progress (2 and 50 got 3 out of 5 lines to appear "solid"). 

 

Having the darker lines is not an option, but the dotted lines are essentially just as bad. Has anyone found a way to consolidate the dots into a single line?

 

PS I am working on a Mac with a Brother printer and I have not found the "options > advanced" that I have read as a suggested area to peruse. My print prompt does not give me a resolution option either. 

 

Thank you for your help!

6 Replies
Have you looked at Format ... Cells ... Border? You can select all kinds of different line styles and colors there.

@mathetes I did try that, I suppose since it is a gridline and not a cell it won't work. :(

Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "gridline" ... I've always found the cell borders to work.

OK, the other thing that occurs to me is in the Sheet section under Page Setup [File....Page Setup....Sheet] there is a setting for "Gridlines", but that's just for printing.

I do think that it's the Format.... Cell and you do need to highlight the whole area you want affected by the change.... If that doesn't work, then it's something I've never encountered.

@mathetes  I think it's because I'm coming from Excel 2011, where it used to let you drag and drop your print lines and the gridlines always printed as a solid line (versus this newer edition that will print gird lines as a dotted line). 

 

I did follow your advice though and found a workable solution. As long as I format the cells to have a certain style border, and format the line color to be a lighter color, it does give me the effect I was after.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

 

PS Do you have any insight on moving print lines? I liked how old Excel let you drag and drop, is that an option here and I am missing it?

@Goodfellas  Have you tried Page Break Preview?  The print lines appear as Bright blue line that you easily move like the 2011 version.  BTW, the Page Break Preview and other viewing settings are available on the bottom right of your excel screen.

Hope it helps. 

@Ajay K. Singh AMAZING! That was the perfect suggestion for my print line problem, thank you very much for the advice!