Microsoft Excel is an important tool that is useful beyond simple calculations and data organisation, offering a range of formatting options to make the data look good and easy to understand. One such feature that can significantly enhance the appearance of your Excel spreadsheets is the ability to add borders. Borders help separate cells and make your work look neat and organised, which is essential when you’re showing your work to others.

There are a few different ways to add borders in Excel. In this guide, we have discussed all the ways to add and remove borders in Excel.

Below we have discussed.

Add predefined borders

Add outside and inside borders together

Add borders through format cells window

How to draw borders?

Create custom cell border style

Remove a cell border

Also read: How to remove page breaks in Excel?

Add predefined borders

There are two types of borders; outside borders and inside borders, and below we have explained how to add both of them in Excel.

To add outside borders, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Select a cell or a range of cells around which you want to add the borders. Click on the Home tab in the toolbar ribbon and then click on the Down arrow button beside the Borders button in the Font section.

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Step 2: Most of the options in the dropdown menu are for the Outside borders, we have highlighted all the outside borders available. Click on the border that you want to add around the cell or cells in your spreadsheet.

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Step 3: If you want to add line colours and line styles to your borders then in the same dropdown menu under Draw Borders, Line Colour and Line Style both options are available.

Remember to set the Line colour and line style first and then select the borders.

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Add outside and inside borders together

To add outside and inside borders together, follow the step below.

Step 1: Select the cells, click on the Home tab and click on the Down arrow button beside the Borders button.

Step 2: In the dropdown menu, click on the All Borders option.

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Also read: How to insert a PDF into PowerPoint?

Add borders through format cells window

Through the format cells window, you can add outside and inside borders. To add them, follow the steps below.

Step 2: In the dropdown menu, click on the More Borders option.

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Step 3: In the Format cells window, you can create outside and inside borders. Firstly, edit the line style and colour then you can either choose the presets to add the borders or make your border by selecting different elements from the Border section, and the preview diagram will show you how your border will look. After you are done, click on the OK button.

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Also read: How to add checkboxes in Google Sheets?

How to draw borders?

To know how to draw borders, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Click on the Home tab and then click on the Down arrow beside the Borders button.

Step 2: Set line colour and line style for your borders.

Step 3: Select the Draw Border or Draw Border Grid option.

Draw Border: Draw border allows you to draw a border along any gridline, creating a regular rectangular border around a range of cells. In simple words, it allows you to draw Outside borders.
Draw Border Grid: It draws outside and inside borders around the cells where you will drag the pencil.

Step 4: To stop drawing borders, click on the Borders button.

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Also read: How to format to double spacing in Word?

Create custom cell border style

To create a custom cell border style follow the steps below.

Step 1: Click on the Home tab in the toolbar ribbon and then click on Cell Styles in the Styles section.

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Step 2: Click on the New Cell Style option.

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Step 3: In the Style window, type an appropriate name for your custom borders style and then click on the Format button.

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Step 4: Click on the Border tab and then edit all the settings for the border as you want, after you are done, click on the OK button.

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Step 5: In the style box again clear the check boxes for any formatting that you don’t want and then click on the OK button. Your customer border style is created

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Step 6: To apply the border style, select the cells and then click on the Cell Styles.

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Step 7: Under Custom, you will see your border styles, click on it and it will be applied to the cells you have selected.

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Remove a cell border

To remove a cell border follow the steps below.

Step: To remove the border from a cell, select the cell or range of cells and click on the Borders button and then in the dropdown menu click on the No Border option.

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Alternate Step: To delete a single border line or multiple lines you can also use the eraser. Click on the Border button and then click on the Erase Border, now click and drag it over the lines you want to erase.