How To Add Borders in Microsoft Excel (With 2 Methods)

When working with spreadsheets in Excel, adding borders to your data can help to emphasize important information and make your spreadsheet more visually appealing. Borders can also help you to organize your data more effectively and create better flow between data sets. Knowing how to add borders in Excel is an essential skill for anyone who works with spreadsheets. In this blog post, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to add borders in Excel so that you can make your data look more professional and organized. We will explain the different types of borders available, how to add them to your data, and tips for customizing your borders. You will soon be an expert in applying borders to your spreadsheets and making them look amazing. So let’s get started!

Excel: How To Add And Create Borders

Reasons to use cell borders

Here are a few reasons you might use cell borders:

What are cell borders in Excel?

Cell borders are the darkened lines you can add to a spreadsheet to surround individual cells. The most frequent border type is a complete border, which bolds all of the lines surrounding a group of cells. Additionally, some projects might require specific border types, such as those that only surround the top row of cells in a spreadsheet or those that only appear on the bottom of each cell. Additionally, you can alter the style of a cell’s border to change features like the color and thickness or opacity of the border lines.

How to add borders in Excel

You can add borders to Excel by using the following two lists of instructions:

How to add borders in Excel from the “Home” menu

Here are the steps for using the “Home” menu to add borders to Excel.

Choosing which cells to border is the first step in adding borders in Excel. This could apply to your entire spreadsheet or just a subset of the cells. When you are certain of which cells you want to have borders added to, click on one of them and then move your cursor across the remaining cells in the group to highlight them. Making sure you only select the cells you want to have borders when you highlight them can be crucial because the subsequent steps add borders to any highlighted cells.

When the desired cells have been highlighted, select the “Home” menu’s “Borders” option. This menu, which in Excel is typically displayed as a toolbar at the top of the screen, offers options for modifying different document specifications, such as orientation, alignment, and font The “Borders” button, which is typically displayed as an icon of a square with dotted lines surrounding and through it, can be found in the “Font” section of the “Home” menu toolbar. To access the border editing options, click this button.

The “Borders” button activates a window with numerous options for changing cell borders. Options like “Bottom Border,” “Outside Borders,” and “All Borders” are included in this. In some Excel versions, users can also change the window’s border thickness. Click “All Borders” to apply borders to each cell in the group you have selected once the “Borders” window has opened. If only specific cells need borders, you can select a different border option.

How to add borders in Excel using the “Format Cells” window

Here are the steps for using Excel’s “Format Cells” window to add more specific borders:

The first step in using the “Format Cells” window to add borders is to highlight the cells that need them. You can follow the same steps as in the first method, which entails moving your cursor across each cell whose borders you want to set. Make sure to only highlight the cells you want to add borders to because Excel will automatically apply any changes you make in subsequent steps to all highlighted cells.

Go to the “Format Cells” window after selecting the cells you want to have borders on. In the “Home” menu toolbar, click the downward-facing arrow next to the “Borders” button to accomplish this. When you reach the bottom of the menu, scroll past the basic choices used in the first method, and select the “More Borders” button. This brings up the “Format Cells” window, where you can make more intricate and specific changes to your highlighted cells.

Users can open the various tabs in the “Format Cells” window to edit different aspects of their spreadsheets, such as “Alignment” and “Number.” Open a new window with border-adjusting options by selecting the “Borders” tab. There are numerous border options available, including various line types, colors, and thicknesses. Additionally, you have the option to select which lines in the highlighted cells have borders, just like in the simpler “Borders” button window. To ensure that other people can read your spreadsheet clearly, it’s crucial to select the border style that best matches the project you’re working on.

Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window after selecting the borders you desire. This applies your changes to any highlighted cells. Then, save your spreadsheet and keep your changes by clicking the “Save” button at the top of the Excel screen.

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FAQ

How do you put a border on every side of a cell in Excel?

Choose the cell or range of cells on a sheet where you want to add or modify borders. , after which you should click the cell border you want to use. Advice: Click More Borders at the bottom of the menu to add or remove portions of a border. Click the borders you want to add or remove under Border.

How do you add borders to 2020 in Excel?

1. A drop-down menu will appear when you click the arrow on the “Borders” button, which resembles a small window.
2. Click on the ‘All Borders’ choice.

How do you add borders in Excel 2016?

1. Choose the cell or range of cells to which borders should be added.
2. You can find a list of the most popular border types by clicking the down arrow next to the Borders button in the Font group of the Home tab.
3. The border you want to use will be added right away to the selected cells when you click it.