Let’s take a look. You might inherit a worksheet that comes from someone else that contains a lot of existing formatting, including heavy use of borders and fills. Rather than try to work with what’s there, piece by piece, it’s often easier and faster to just clear all borders and fills and start fresh. Both borders and fills can be removed using menus on the ribbon. First, select the cells you’d like to change. To remove all borders, select No Border from the Border menu. This command will remove all borders completely. To remove all fills, select No Fill from the Fill color menu on the ribbon. This will completely remove all fills, including patterns and gradients. Borders and fills can also be removed using the Format Cells dialog box. Let’s undo and look at that option. To remove borders using Format Cells, navigate to the Border tab and click the None preset. To remove fills, access the Fill tab and click No Color. Changes take effect when you click the OK button. With all borders and fills removed, you can now add the borders and fills you need for a clean presentation.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.