Removing Dotted Lines in Microsoft Excel

Dotted lines in Excel can appear unexpectedly, but they usually have a specific cause, and it’s easy to remove them. Let’s go over why these lines show up and how to get rid of them.

When Do Dotted Lines Appear?

1. Page Breaks:
   • Dotted lines may appear as page break indicators when you print or preview your sheet. These lines show where each page will end when printed.
2. Page Break Preview Mode:
   • If you use the Page Break Preview mode, dotted lines appear to show where the page breaks are, and they remain visible when you switch back to Normal view.
3. Borders Added by Collaborators:
   • When working with shared workbooks, collaborators might add dotted borders to certain cells.

How to Remove Dotted Lines

1. Remove Dotted Lines After Printer Preview

• Steps:
  1. Go to File > Options.
  2. In the Excel Options window, select Advanced.
  3. Scroll down to the Display Options for This Worksheet section.
  4. Uncheck the box for Show Page Breaks.
  5. Click OK to close the window.

The dotted lines will be removed, and your sheet should return to normal.

2. Remove Dotted Lines After Page Break Preview

• Steps:
  1. Switch to Normal view by selecting Normal on the View tab.
  2. If the dotted lines persist, follow the same steps as for the Printer Preview:
     • Go to File > Options, select Advanced, and uncheck Show Page Breaks.

Your dotted and solid page break lines will be gone.

3. Change Dotted Border Lines to Solid

• Steps:
  1. Select the cells with dotted borders.
  2. Go to the Home tab and click the Borders drop-down in the Font section.
  3. To remove the borders, select No Border.
  4. To change the dotted lines to solid lines, select a solid line style under the Line Style option in the drop-down menu.

This will remove or change the style of any borders that have been added.

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