Unwanted horizontal line

[John F. Davies]

I have Excel 2003.

I have a continuous line under 7 cells, although only partly under the first and last cells. The line looks like a bottom border, but it is not because I cannot remove it with border formatting. If I remove the rows containing the line, the line jumps up a couple of rows. If I remove the columns containing the line, it's gone but so are my data and formulas. When I make a chart on top of the line, the line shows through the chart and when I copy the chart, the line comes with it. How can I remove this stupid line (which is now copied all over the place) without changing anything else on the worksheet? And also important, how do I avoid this happening again?

Thanks in advance for the tip, as my work colleagues don't know how to solve it.

[#2]

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@John F. Davies wrote:
The line looks like a bottom border, but it is not because I cannot remove it with border formatting.

Perhaps it is an upper border.

[#3]

No, because it doesn't fully extend over the first and last cells. I don't think that you can make a border in only part of a cell. Anyway, if I remove all the rows at, above and below the line, the border can't jump up to occupy other rows, can it?

[#4]

I could be an object.

Try selecting it and hit the DEL-key.

[#5]

The line is not selectable. It is a line looking the same as a border line and is positioned exactly on the gridline between two rows. It does not occupy any area. If I place the cursor in the column anywhere above or below the line and insert a column, the mystery line gets longer.

Most irritating is that it shows up as a horizontal line on a chart which is placed on top of it.

[#6]

What happens if you remove the chart?

[#7]

Nothing happens to the line because it is not attached to the chart, it is attached to the spreadsheet, so it stays there. I probably misled you by saying that when I copy the chart, the mystery line goes with it. This is true only because I am copying both the chart and the linked data in one go to another location, so I select all the cells, and then of course the mystery line is copied too. But it is not attached to the chart.

The chart masks out the gridlines but the chart does not mask out the mystery line. If I write "abc" in a cell and then put the chart on top of it, I don't see the "abc" of course. But I do see this stupid line.

[#8]

I have no more ideas.

Could you upload your file?

[#9]

Here it is. I have deleted all data, but you can see a sample of the offending lines.

For example there are 6 of them between A2..AA4 of varying lengths

There is one at lines 17/18 under and showing through the chart. There is a further one at  L34..R35

I hope you get the file. BTW I have the same problem on other worksheets independent of this one.

[#10]

My first impression: There are no lines.

I switched off the gridlines and deleted the chart.

My second impression: There are no lines.

I pressed F5, clicked "Special..." and selected "Objects".

My third impression: Suddenly there seem to be some lines. But they have a heigth of 0 cm. That's why you couldn't select them with the mouse.

Keep them selected and press DEL.

[#11]

Thank you for your patience. Perhaps you do not see the lines because of software differences. I am using Excel 2003, normally an excellent product with no other problems!

Therefore I send you the attached screenshot in a Word file as a object and you cannot fail to see the lines with varying length and also the most peculiar one between lines 17 and 18 which is both on the worksheet and on top of the chart.

On my HP, pressing the F5 key only causes an exit from the worksheet. Please explain how I can select the line without using F5 and without using the mouse.

[#12]

Huh... try CTRL-G then.

[#13]

Thanks, it works. With Control-G, Special, Objects, all the unwanted lines are selected, which I can then delete in one go. Since all the charts are also selected, I first had to copy them to another sheet, and then after the deletion of the lines, I copied them back again. Is there a way to deselect the charts so that I don't have to move them to and fro?

[#14]

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@John F. Davies wrote:

Is there a way to deselect the charts so that I don't have to move them to and fro?

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It's like any other mutliple selection: Hold the CTRL-key and click on the chart. It should be de-selected.

[#15]

Sorry for jumping in with off-topic

"Excel 2003, normally an excellent product with no other problems!"

Agree, Excel in general is quite excellent product. However, Excel 2003 is not supported for about 7 years, and even if it has no other problems it doesn't have a lot of other possibilities compare to latest versions.

But John, that's your business, just a comment.

[#16]

Thanks, yes of course, I must have been too light on the control key. Problem solved, many thanks.

[#17]

Yes, you're right. But probably you know that once a normal private user has bought Office 2003, there isn't much incentive to buy a newer version and then have to learn all the new icons and menus.

The only way round this problem for Microsoft is to withdraw the old product, plus convince the big users to upgrade. The same applies to Windows. W-10 was offered free, but I didn't take the offer.

However, MS will get me in the end! That's alright. It's the problem that software doesn't wear out. For some customers you have to wait till their hardware wears out.

[#18]

If it was a table you removed filters & some formatting from, try Click Table Design, then Convert to Range to remove Table