# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel General >  >  Border lines are not showing for some cells

## techhelper1010

I have an extensive spreadsheet with several columns and all showing borders
where each cell/column begins and ends.  However there are a few cells where
the break with the next cell does not show the line.

I have highlighed the cell in question, gone to format/cell/borders and
everything looks fine.  Black color + format border shows square with all
sides of square showing.

Any thoughts on how to fix these few random cells.

Thanks

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## Anne Troy

They could have a white fill. Format the cells for NO fill.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"techhelper1010" <techhelper1010@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9E816D25-1BF1-47AA-B861-A9F35D1A9212@microsoft.com...
>I have an extensive spreadsheet with several columns and all showing
>borders
> where each cell/column begins and ends.  However there are a few cells
> where
> the break with the next cell does not show the line.
>
> I have highlighed the cell in question, gone to format/cell/borders and
> everything looks fine.  Black color + format border shows square with all
> sides of square showing.
>
> Any thoughts on how to fix these few random cells.
>
> Thanks

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## freeziebaby21

I am having this same issue & I thought that maybe the cells were filled with white so I selected them & changed them to no fill, & then tried to add the borders again. I have worked with excel for about 4 years & am pretty familiar with the program... this has me stumped - please help, thanks!

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## mamercio

Hi,

It's probably too late but i was experiencing the same problem (still do, actually) and i figured a workaround (kind of cheating, but works for me). 

In my case the border that was not visible was the bottom of some of my tables. What i did was: instead of selecting the last row -> Format -> cells -> borders and establishing there the bottom border; i selected both the last row of the table and the one following -> format -> borders and established the middle border

For some misterious reason Excel did let me do this and now bottom border is shown. I reckon you can apply this for other borders. However i dont have the faintest idea of why.

Hope it helped! Cheers,

Alberto P.

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## guest74

Same thing happened to me.  Check the cell numbers on the left hand side.  Are there any numbers missing from the sequence?  In my situation, 3 rows of cells had been squashed together so they were no longer visible (but still part of the spreadsheet.  Once I fixed that, my borders worked fine!

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## Tynerion

Another possibility is that you have pasted in some text that carries (in my case it was spaces, so it was not obvious) on beyond the border.  Either make the cell size bigger to accommodate the text or remove any text extending beyond the cell.

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## Gnokrojam

Me too.

  I was using conditional formatting to change the fill color of every other row of my "ToDo" list.
  I had manually formatted the vertical borders as thick black lines.
  The odd thing is that this worked for a long time. Years. In the last few weeks something changed.
  Now the rows that get the conditional formatting fill applied have no dark vertical border lines.
  I have stripped away content and all other formatting and this issue remains. Even if I make the fill color - "no fill". (I have included color for visibility in the file.)
  I have attached the stripped down, simplified, file to this post.
  Does this add anything new to the cell border mystery?
  I created this spreadsheet with Excel Version 14.0.7128.5 (32 bit).
  One of the things I have done is to save it as an Excel 97-2003 (*.xls) Workbook. No change.

Thank you.
Phil

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## LJMetzger

Hello all you newcomers and welcome to ExcelForum,

In the future please don't ask a question in an old post.  It is better to start your own thread.  If you feel an existing thread is particularly relevant to your need, provide a link to the other thread in your new thread. 

Old threads are often only monitored by the original participants.  New threads not only open you up to all possible participants again, they typically get faster response, too.

----------------------

Borders are sometimes lost accidentally, or on purpose when you paint a cell with a color other than ColorIndex xlNone.  See the file associated with post #13 in the following thread.  The file puts borders around ranges of cells using VBA.  http://www.excelforum.com/excel-prog...ml#post3907797

For those in need of VBA and or Macro assistance:
To enable Macros and to Run Macros see the following:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...010031071.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...010014113.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/tr...001150634.aspx
If help is still needed do a google search for 'youtube excel enable macro' and/or 'youtube excel run macro'.

To access Visual Basic (VBA) see:
http://www.ablebits.com/office-addin...a-macro-excel/
a. Click on any cell in the Excel Spreadsheet (may not be needed).
b. ALT-F11 to get to VBA.
c. CTRL-R to get project explorer (if it isn't already showing).
d. Double Click on a 'Module Name' in 'Project Explorer' to see code for that module.

Lewis

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## Gnokrojam

Wow. It requires a macro to get the borders back. I'm surprised.

I will heed your instructions about new posts.

Thank you for the help.

Phil

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## GarySchepp

I had the same problem with borders not showing. It turned out to be conditional formatting causing a conflict. The borders missing occurred when the first row with conditional formatting below my header resulted in a change to borders. If the condition was not met it was fine. So I inserted a row between the header and first data row and reduced the height. It would probably work by hiding the row too.

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## tallym

For me, I solved this problem by going to "Line Style" and selecting "Border". It was changed to "No Border", which means when I tried to make borders, nothing would show up.

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## ScottMorris1985

Hello All, 

After a good deal of messing about I think I have cracked this.
If you have selected multiple rows/columns and then go and set a custom row height/column 
width for those rows/columns e.g. *1.59cm* you can end up with a number that is not integer
divisible by the number of pixels on the screen. By simply adjusting your column widths by a small
amount e.g. to *1.56cm* the border will suddenly become visible.



hope this helps 
cheers all

Scott.

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## senker

Under the border drop down, make sure the "Line Style" is not set to "No Border"

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## thatsmymichael

Just highlight the affected area, right click and clear contents.

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## Yvey

If your spreadsheet is in the protect mode..... unprotect it and the border lines should work.

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## damwil16

I changed the line color from automatic to black and it worked.

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## gordonhz

this has worked for me .... get a few spaces behind the last character in the cell in the formula box on top and hit delete several times then backspace to the last character in the box. your border line will now appear.

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## Supersonic Chipmunk

Just fixed this on my machine.  Tried a few of your suggestions and found one of my own.  
I saved the document as a 1997-2003 workbook, went to the PRINT menu and on the PRINTER PROPERTIES (near the top)ADVANCED tab, I DISABLED the PRINT OPTIMIZATIONS option.  
After that I had to reset my double-sided printing but apart from that, it worked.  
No visual basic programming needed and no need to print gridlines.  
Hope this helps you.

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## ggsmit

please ignore the 'solution' below, the missing cell borders/gridlines do NOT appear upon copy and paste with 'paste values only' into a new worksheet.
i notice that only some vertical lines are missing in my case.


_
i had the problem in a gmail csv file which i opened with excel 365.
i did not try the vba as mentioned somewhere above. most other methods did not work either.
i copied and pasted 'values only' to another sheet and the problem was gone - voila/eezy peezy_

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## Xolile

Hi there, your solution worked for me. Thank you.

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