How can I change the gridline color?

Question

Level 1

76 points

How can I change the gridline color?

I'm pretty much at my wits end with this. How on earth do I change the color of the bottom gridline so it will appear as an underline?

I am used to using Excel where it is brainlessly easy to change the color of gridlines (Borders) and choose which side of the square you want the lines, the thickness, the color, etc and then once you create one you can just click a button and repeat this. (Same with fill color)

In Numbers I can find no such thing. I don't want to have to open an "Inspector" over and over again, and even in Inspector I see now where to change the lines (actually I can change the "Line" but it then does it to the entire box. I only want the line on the bottom of the box)

There must be a way to do this that I'm not seeing.

Also, once you have set a fill or line color, is there a way to add or show this up on the tool bar so you can just click a button and do it again?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jul 25, 2013 5:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

kharisma

Level 1

106 points

Jul 25, 2013 6:08 AM in response to lilskye

Hi

I was really stumped by this at first.

There is a manual, which it is useful to read, initially, as there are some very different ways of doing some things.

The border attributes are not as simple as Excel, OpenOffice, etc, but not as daunting as it first seems.

On the Format Toolbar, a little to the right of centre, there is a dropdown of various borders, followed to the right by Line Style, Line Width, Line Colour.

Select the range you want to change borders for.
Select which border you want to change.
Default is to change all borders in the range.
Select a Line Style.
If there is currently no border, choose one.
If you want to remove a border, select "none" for Line Style.
Play with width and colour.

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Answer 2

lilskye Author

Level 1

76 points

Jul 25, 2013 6:32 AM in response to kharisma

THANK YOU! This was driving me totally crazy. I couldn't find it in the Help. In my situation I never work with the window widened out, as I am transcribing from other things on my desktop.

Is there any way to personalize the tool bars? Like to make one and save it as a favorite or move this borders function over near the the font functions?

xx

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Answer 3

Jul 25, 2013 6:36 AM in response to lilskye

Adding to kharismas post:

select the cell(s) whose border you want to adjust then select each of the 4 items highlighted below

1) selects which borders

2) selects the border style

3) select the border weight (how thick the line is)

4) selects the color of the border

you can use the menu items "Format > Copy Style" and "Format > Paste Style" to copy and paste borders

The same border tools are available in the cells inspector:

In the section title "Cell Borders"

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Answer 4

kharisma

Level 1

106 points

Jul 25, 2013 6:58 AM in response to lilskye

So far, I haven't found any way to personalise toolbars, etc.

Best you can do is make some templates for favourite formats, table layouts, etc, and select those for future workbooks.

The Copy&Paste Style can be annoying, 'cos if there are borders of different colours, widths, etc, on the copied cell, Numbers chooses one, and replicates it all around the pasted cell. Rotten nuisance. (I was going to be more emphatic, but might be against forum rules :-))

Use Copy Style with caution.

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Answer 5

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,383 points

Jul 25, 2013 7:25 AM in response to lilskye

Hi lilskye,

Just adding to kharisma's solution, have a look at Page 58 of the Numbers'09 User Guide. That shows how to quickly select a border of a whole Row (to allow you to apply an underline appearance) or a whole Column.

In Numbers, use Menu > Table > Allow Border Selection (near the bottom of that Table Menu).

The Numbers User Guide is available for download under the Numbers Help Menu. The Guide will open in Preview and you can enter a Search term ("borders" will get several answers).

Happy Numbers!

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 6

lilskye Author

Level 1

76 points

Jul 25, 2013 6:40 PM in response to Yellowbox

Thank you ALL so much! It would certainly be wonderful if they upgraded this to allow users to create a favorite toolbar and put the various items where you want.

Anyway thanks again to all! I have downloaded the manual and will go thru it.

Best,

lilskye

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Answer 7

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Jul 25, 2013 10:38 PM in response to lilskye

Hi Lil,

You wrote: " It would certainly be wonderful if they upgraded this to allow users to create a favorite toolbar and put the various items where you want."

Best place to send a suggestion like that is to Apple. In Numbers, go to the Numbers menu, choose Provide Number Feedback, and make a feature enhancement request for a future version of Numbers.

Regards,

Barry

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