Change Excel default to show no gridlines

If you want to hide the gridlines on existing workbooks that are opened in Excel, you will need to use Application level events to trap workbooks being opened, then turn the gridlines off in every worksheet in those workbooks. In other words, you will need a VBA macro.

I'm hoping that isn't what you were requesting. But if it is, I'll program a macro for you tomorrow if someone hasn't beat me to it.

Brad

What about turning the default gridlines color to white, the same as the workbooks background color? This way the gridlines would not show...

This can be done on Excel 2010 by going to File-Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll down until you see on the "Display options for this worksheet", the option for Gridline color. Just change it to white.

Hope it helps.

jppinto

Thanks for the helpful feedback—and especially for the specifics re saving a template, etc.

Oops. I meant for the last 100 points to go in the post which contains the DBA and attached sample file. I'm not sure how to fix it after the fact but at least it got to the same expert.

I suppose it's not a big deal but at least to have it correct for future reference, I will ask an EE support person to look at it.

Steve,
Just under your question in the upper right is a link that says Request Attention. Click that and request that the question be re-opened, then you'll be able to re-assign the points as you'd like. Regards, Joe

Thanks for the assistance.

Brad (byundt),

When I tried saving your Visual Basic attached sheet to my XLSTART folder and then open a new Excel spreadsheet I receive an error message.

Error message reads:
"Microsoft Visual Basic, Run-time error '5': Invalid procedure call or argument"

When I select the "debug" button I am taken to your code with the following like highlighted in yellow:

"Application.Goto celHome"

Hoping you could shed light on a fix for this. Thank you kindly.

Aia

Aia,
Could you post the workbook that causes the problem?

Brad

Hi Brad,

Sure, it's the exact same sheet that was attached to your comment above dated, 2013-12-30 at 07:10:11.

Attaching to this comment to ensure no confusion.

Thanks,
Aia
ApplicationEventsQ28327226.xlsm

I can reproduce the error if ApplicationEvents is opened first. The fix is to sandwich the statement producing the error with error handling statements:

Private Sub App_WorkbookOpen(ByVal Wb As Workbook)
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim wn As Window
Dim celHome As Range
Set celHome = ActiveCell
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
For Each ws In Wb.Worksheets
    If Wb.Windows(1).Visible = True Then
        ws.Select
        Set wn = ActiveWindow
        wn.DisplayGridlines = False
    End If
Next
On Error Resume Next
Application.Goto celHome
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

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Thank you Brad,

Could you please attached a spreadsheet where you saved the changes, to ensure I don't make an error when I add the correction?

Much appreciated.
Thank you,
Aia

ApplicationEventsQ28327226-1.xlsm

Thank you for uploading the template worksheet with the corrections to the VBA macro.

Unfortunately, after saving your latest spreadsheet to our XLSTART folder, the guidelines are still not defaulting to off. Did you find success in doing the same thing? Do you have any suggestions by chance, maybe something I'm doing incorrectly?

Thank you kindly,
Aia

Here are the steps I followed:

1) Downloaded your spreadsheet you uploaded 2016-05-12 19:50;47
2) Open XLSTART folder located here: C:\Users\[myusername]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
3) Copy the spreadsheet to this folder
4) Restarted computer
5) opened a new Excel Spreadsheet
6) Expected result: Gridlines are defaulted to "off", Actual Result: Gridlines were not defaulted to "off".

Aia,
Please confirm that the spreadsheet actually got opened when you relaunched Excel. To do this:
1. ALT + F11 to open the VBA Editor
2. Look in the Project Explorer pane at the left. You should see ApplicationEventsQ28327226-1.xlsm listed, as well as any other workbook you opened.

If ApplicationEventsQ28327226-1.xlsm is opened, the next thing I want you to test is whether it is running its code when you open another workbook. To do this, you place a "Stop" in the code:
1. ALT + F11 to open the VBA Editor
2. Find sub App_WorkbookOpen, then click in the margin to the left of the following statement:

Set celHome = ActiveCell

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Excel should respond by adding a large maroon dot in that margin
3. ALT + F11 to return to the worksheet user interface, then open another workbook. Control should return to the VBA Editor, with the Set celHome statement highlighted in yellow.

Brad