There are two places to remove grid lines.  If you don't want to see them on the screen, go to menu Tools / Options, and in the view tab, in the Windows options section, you have a check box called Gridlines. Unmark it and the grid lines will disappear.The other place where you can show/hide gridline is on printed reports.  Go to the menu file / page setup, and on the Sheet tab, in the print section, there is another checkbox for grid lines.  Same as before, mark it to show the gridlines in the printed report.

Hope this helps,Miguel.

 

Show All

To make the data in a chart that displays axes easier to read, you can display horizontal and vertical chart gridlines.

Gridlines extend from any horizontal and vertical axes across the plot area of the chart. You can also display depth gridlines in 3-D charts. Displayed for major and minor units, gridlines align with major and minor tick marks on the axes when tickmarks are displayed. You cannot display gridlines for chart types that do not display axes, such as pie charts and

doughnut charts.

 Horizontal gridline

 Vertical gridline

 Depth gridline

 NOTE    This article covers working with gridlines in a chart. For more information about working with gridlines on a worksheet, see Hide or display cell gridlines on a worksheet and Print with or without cell gridlines.

What do you want to do?

Display chart gridlines

Hide chart gridlines

Display chart gridlines1. Click anywhere on the chart to which you want to add chart gridlines.

This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.

2. On the Layout tab, in the Axes group, click Gridlines.

3. Do one or more of the following:

For horizontal gridlines, click Primary Horizontal Gridlines, and then click the option that you want.

For secondary horizontal gridlines, click Secondary Horizontal Gridlines.

 NOTE    This option is only available for charts that display a secondary horizontal axis. For more information, see Add or remove a secondary axis in a chart.

For vertical gridlines, click Primary Vertical Gridlines, and then click the option that you want.

For secondary vertical gridlines, click Secondary Vertical Gridlines.

 NOTE    This option is only available for charts that display a secondary vertical axis. For more information, see Add or remove a secondary axis in a chart.

For depth gridlines on a 3-D chart, click Depth Gridlines, and then click the option that you want.

 NOTE    This option is only available when the selected chart is a true 3-D chart, such as a 3-D column chart.

TOP OF PAGE

Hide chart gridlines1. Click anywhere on the chart to which you want to add chart gridlines.

This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.

2. On the Layout tab, in the Axes group, click Gridlines.

3. Do one or more of the following:

Click Primary Horizontal Gridlines, Primary Vertical Gridlines, or Depth Gridlines (on a 3-D chart), and then click None.

Click Secondary Horizontal Gridlines or Secondary Vertical Gridlines, and then click None.

 NOTE    These options are only available when a chart has secondary horizontal or vertical axes.

Select the horizontal or vertical chart gridlines that you want to remove, and then press DELETE.

Arbitrary Gridlines

Don't you wish you had more control over Excel's chart gridlines? Wouldn't you like Excel to draw gridlines where you want them? There isn't a lot of built in support for this, but over the years people have learned a few tricks to generate charts like this:

Here is how to get your own custom gridlines, with arbitrary spacing (and arbitrary labels). You can use this technique for many purposes:

Show target or cut off levels for the plotted values. Show statistics, such as mean, control limits, etc. Generate log or probability gridline scales with your own scale parameters.

See "Flexible Log Axes" at http://www.tushar-mehta.com

This technique is closely related to that in Arbitrary Axis Scale, which demonstrates how to put axis ticks and labels at arbitrary positions along an axis. I use a slightly different approach in Add a Horizontal Line to a Column Chart.

Chart 1 is a scatter chart showing 40 randomly generated data points.

The data I will use to generate my gridlines (and labels, while I'm at it) is shown below:

Axis X Axis Y Label 0 0.7 alpha 0 1.2 beta 0 1.9 gamma 0 2.2 delta 0 3.1 epsilon 0 3.6 eta 0 4.2 theta

To make gridlines parallel to the X axis, all my X values are equal to the Y axis minimum (zero in this case). The Axis Y values correspond to the places I want my axis ticks. (To generate gridlines parallel to the Y axis, put the values under X and zeros--or Y axis minimums--under Y.)

Chart 2 shows the dummy gridline data plotted, as a series of magenta squares along the Y axis.

In Chart 3, I have added positive X Error Bars to my dummy series, long enough to stretch across the plot area. I also manually set the X axis maximum; adding the error bars causes Excel to extend the axis scale. (The error bars are magenta for clarity).

In Chart 4, I have added dummy labels to the gridlines, using the technique described in Arbitrary Axis Scale. The easiest way to get the grid labels is to apply data labels to each point in the dummy series, then change the label to display the desired text. To do this easily, you need Rob Bovey's XY Chart Labeler, a free and absolutely must have add-in available from http://www.appspro.com. It's compatible with every version of Excel since 97 (and I think there's also an earlier version, but even I use 97). Use the Labeler to add the 'Labels' to the dummy series added above, aligned to the left of the points. See the magenta labels in Chart 4.

In Chart 5 I have cleaned things up for presentation. I removed the original (default) horizontal gridlines. I formatted my custom gridlines so they were hairline width (like the default ones) and I removed the crossbar (the "T") at their ends. In the patterns tab of the Format Y Axis dialog, I set the major ticks, minor ticks, and tick labels to "none". I adjusted the size of the plot and the X axis scales. I changed all the magenta stuff to black, and formatted the dummy series ("Grid Y") to have no marker. I removed the "Axis Y" entry from the legend. (Single click twice--don't double click--on the legend entry until only the entry is selected, then press delete.)

Now wasn't that easy!? DummySeries.zip is a zipped Excel file with an easy demonstration of the steps to create arbitrary gridlines, or an arbitrary axis (see Arbitrary Axis Scale).

My Simulated Probability Chart Example (below) is an application of the Arbitrary Axis Scale and Arbitrary Gridlines techniques.

The Reciprocal Axis Chart is another implementation of these techniques.

This zipped Excel file has yet another example of a chart using an arbitrary axis scale and gridlines. The data is sparse for early times and dense later, so neither a Line chart nor an XY Scatter chart will do.

Read more: Arbitrary Gridlines http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ArbitraryGridlines.html#ixzz0wDGUiDCl

Printing gridlines and row and column headings often makes it easier to read data in your spreadsheet.

These features are not, however, automatically enabled in Excel. This article shows you how to enable both features in Excel 2007.

How to Print Gridlines and Headings in Excel

Note: For help with this example, see the image to the right.

1. Open a worksheet that contains data or quickly add data to the first four or five columns and rows.

2. Click on the Page Layout tab.

3. Check the Print box under Gridlines on the ribbon in order to activate the feature.

4. Check the Print box under Headings in order to activate this feature as well.

5. Click on the print preview button on the Quick Access Toolbar in order to preview your worksheet before printing it.

6. Dotted lines should outline the cells containing data in print preview.

7. As well, the row numbers and column letters of the cells containing data should be also be visible in print preview.