How to Hide Gridlines on a Word Table

Gridlines in a Word table show the boundaries of each cell when borders are turned off. These light gray lines appear on screen but do not print. You may want to hide gridlines to see a cleaner preview of your document or to check how the table will look without any visual cell boundaries. This article explains the difference between gridlines and borders and provides three methods to hide gridlines in Word for Windows and Mac.

What Are Gridlines and How Do They Differ From Borders?

Gridlines are non-printing guides that Word shows by default when you create a table. They appear as light gray dotted lines between cells. Their sole purpose is to help you see where each cell begins and ends while you edit the table. Borders, on the other hand, are printable lines that you apply to cells, rows, or the entire table. You can set border styles, colors, and thicknesses. Hiding gridlines does not remove any borders you have applied. The table will still print with its borders if you have set them. If you want to remove all visible cell boundaries on screen and in print, you must both remove borders and hide gridlines.

Method 1: Use the Table Layout Tab to Toggle Gridlines

This is the fastest method for hiding gridlines on a single table. It uses the Table Layout contextual tab that appears when you click inside a table.

1. Click inside the table
   Place your cursor anywhere inside the table whose gridlines you want to hide. The Table Design and Table Layout tabs appear on the ribbon.
2. Open the Table Layout tab
   Click the Table Layout tab on the ribbon. It is located next to the Table Design tab.
3. Locate the View Gridlines button
   In the Table group on the left side of the ribbon, find the button labeled View Gridlines. It looks like a small table with dashed lines.
4. Click View Gridlines to toggle them off
   Click the View Gridlines button once. The gridlines disappear immediately. Click the same button again to show them again.

This method affects only the current table. If you create a new table later in the same document, gridlines will still be visible for that new table until you repeat the toggle.

Method 2: Remove All Borders to Hide Gridlines and Borders Together

If your goal is to see the table without any visible lines on screen or in print, you can remove all borders first. After that, gridlines remain unless you also toggle them off. However, if you remove borders and then hide gridlines, the table becomes completely invisible on screen. Use this method when you want an invisible table structure for layout purposes.

1. Select the entire table
   Click the table selector icon that appears at the top-left corner of the table when you hover over it. This selects all cells.
2. Open the Table Design tab
   Click the Table Design tab on the ribbon.
3. Click the Borders button
   In the Borders group, click the Borders button. A dropdown menu appears.
4. Choose No Border
   Select No Border from the dropdown. All borders are removed from the table.
5. Toggle off View Gridlines
   Switch to the Table Layout tab and click View Gridlines to hide the remaining on-screen gridlines.

After these steps, the table content remains editable, but no lines of any kind appear around the cells.

Method 3: Disable Show Text Boundaries in Word Options

This method hides gridlines for all tables in the entire document. It also hides the dotted boundary lines that Word shows around text boxes, headers, and footers. Use this method when you want a completely clean on-screen view with no editing aids.

1. Open Word Options
   Click File > Options. The Word Options dialog box opens.
2. Go to the Advanced category
   In the left pane, click Advanced.
3. Scroll to the Show document content section
   Scroll down until you see the heading Show document content.
4. Uncheck Show text boundaries
   Find the checkbox labeled Show text boundaries. Uncheck it.
5. Click OK
   Click OK to close the dialog. Gridlines disappear from all tables in the document.

To restore gridlines, repeat the steps and recheck Show text boundaries. This setting applies only to the current document. New documents will still show gridlines by default.

What to Do If Gridlines Refuse to Hide

Gridlines reappear after saving and reopening the document

This happens when the document is opened in Compatibility Mode or on a different version of Word. To fix it, convert the document to the current Word format by clicking File > Info > Convert. Then apply the gridline hiding method again.

The View Gridlines button is grayed out

The View Gridlines button is only active when your cursor is inside a table. Click inside any cell of the table, then the button becomes clickable.

Gridlines still show in Print Preview

Gridlines never appear in Print Preview or in the printed document. If you see lines in Print Preview, they are borders, not gridlines. Remove borders using the No Border option in the Table Design tab.

Print Preview vs On-Screen View: What You Actually See

Item	On-Screen View	Print Preview / Printed Output
Gridlines	Visible by default as light gray dotted lines	Never visible — gridlines do not print
Borders	Visible as solid, dashed, or styled lines per your formatting	Visible exactly as formatted
No Border + Gridlines Hidden	Table appears invisible; only cell content is visible	Table is invisible

Now you can hide gridlines on any Word table using the method that fits your workflow. For a quick single-table fix, use the Table Layout tab toggle. For a document-wide clean view, disable Show text boundaries in Word Options. If you frequently create invisible tables for layout, consider saving a template with gridlines already hidden.