A reader thinks the gridlines in excel are just too darn light and wanted to know how to make them darker and have it stick. Let’s look at some options. To change the color of grid lines in Excel, create or open a sheet and click the File tab. I'm assuming you want to print the grid. File > Page Setup, then go to the Sheet tab. On that page, under Print, there's a checkbox called 'Gridlines'. --jeroen via How do.

[ Editor's note: This is a review of the final, shipping version of Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac, provided to Macworld by Microsoft in advance of the suite's general release.] represents the largest step forward for serious Mac spreadsheet jockeys in many years, more so than either ( ) or ( ). There are literally hundreds of improvements, some very noticeable, others not quite as much so.

The big news for power users is the return of macro support (more on that later), but there’s good stuff to be found for Excel users of all levels. Some uneven performance issues and a lack of Mac-standard features, however, prevent this version from Excel from attaining perfection.

The interface Excel 2011 looks much different than its 2004 and 2008 predecessors. Gone are the numerous floating toolbars and the floating formatting palette. Excel 2011 replaces all of those floating bits with two toolbars (standard and formatting) and the Ribbon, a collection of small tabs that provide easy access to often-used commands. You can customize the Ribbon, or even disable it if you wish. It's context sensitive, so it changes to match the task at hand. For example, if you double-click an image, the Ribbon will open to a greatly improved set of image-editing commands. Onenote vs evernote comparison chart. The Ribbon and toolbars are now integrated in each Excel window, so there’s nothing floating around outside your workspace.

A couple of optional floating windows remain, but they’re not required in most typical spreadsheet work. The Ribbon’s tabs are compact, and the Ribbon itself can collapse to a single row of tabs when not in use. As a result, the new Excel’s work area doesn’t feel smaller than that of the older versions.

With the interface now contained in a single window, working with multiple workbooks at once is simpler. For example, you previously couldn’t compare formulas between workbooks, because the formula bar existed only once for every open workbook. Now each workbook has its own formula bar.

Other minor touches abound. There’s a full 32-bit color palette instead of 40 colors. Drag-resizing a window now updates it in real time, instead of merely dragging an outline. SmartArt has over 150 pre-made templates (up from 80-ish), all of which you can customize. A media browser provides fast access to photos, audio, movies, clip art, symbols, and shapes. For the most part these new features work quite well.