Excel: How to Get Rid of Page Break Lines on a Sheet

To hide page break lines in Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, open File > Options > Advanced, find Display options for this worksheet, and clear Show page breaks. This hides the guides on that worksheet; it does not change where pages break when you print.

Hide page break lines in Excel for Windows

The display setting is a little different from the controls for inserting or removing page breaks, so follow the worksheet-specific option:

Open the worksheet where the lines are visible.
Select File > Options.
Choose Advanced in the Excel Options window.
Scroll to Display options for this worksheet. If necessary, use its drop-down list to select the worksheet you want to change.
Clear Show page breaks, then select OK.

The lines should disappear from that sheet in Normal view. The setting applies to the selected worksheet, not automatically to every sheet in the workbook. If several worksheets show the guides, check the setting for each one. Excel may remember the choice for that worksheet, so it can remain hidden when you close and reopen the workbook.

If you are currently looking at a page-break layout, also select View > Normal. That switches away from Page Break Preview, where page boundaries are displayed as prominent guides. Changing the view and hiding page breaks are related but distinct actions: Normal view changes how you look at the sheet, while Show page breaks controls whether Excel displays the guides there.

Why the lines appear

Excel divides a worksheet into printable pages based on paper size, orientation, margins, scaling, and the amount of content. It can calculate page boundaries automatically, and you can also insert manual breaks to force a new page at a chosen row or column. The lines are visual indicators of those boundaries, not cell borders or part of the worksheet data.

In Normal view, page breaks may appear as fine dashed lines, often after you have opened Print or Print Preview. In Page Break Preview, Excel shows the printable pages more explicitly, with page areas and break guides. Automatic and manually set breaks can look different in that view; manual breaks are commonly shown as solid lines and automatic ones as dashed lines. Their appearance can depend on the view, but either way they are print-layout guides.

These indicators can be useful when preparing a report, but distracting when you are entering data or formatting cells. Hiding them does not remove rows, columns, or content and does not convert the worksheet into a different file format.

Hide lines without changing the printed pages

The Show page breaks checkbox is a display preference. Clearing it does not erase manual breaks, remove automatic breaks, or change the printout. If a table currently prints across two pages, it will still do so after you hide the lines. This distinction matters because a worksheet can look clean on screen while retaining exactly the same page layout for printing.

To check or adjust the actual output, use File > Print to open the print settings and preview. Review the page count and how the content falls on each page. If the layout needs work, change print settings rather than the display checkbox. For example:

Use Page Layout > Orientation to choose Portrait or Landscape.
Use Page Layout > Margins to choose a margin preset or adjust margins.
Use the scaling controls in Page Layout, such as Fit to Width, if columns are spilling onto extra pages. Scaling can make printed text smaller, so check the preview.
Use Page Layout > Print Area to set or clear the range intended for printing.

These changes affect print layout; hiding the guides does not. If the lines are visible because you need to know where a printout will split, leave them on until the layout is settled, then hide them for everyday editing.

Hide lines or remove manual page breaks?

Choose the action that matches the problem. If you only want a less cluttered worksheet, turn off Show page breaks. If a manually inserted break is forcing an unwanted new page, remove or reset the break instead. Hiding a line cannot fix an awkward printout because it leaves the break in place.

To remove manual breaks, select the worksheet and use Page Layout > Breaks. The available commands include Remove Page Break when the relevant cell or break is selected, and Reset All Page Breaks to discard manual page-break adjustments on that sheet. Reset All Page Breaks restores automatic pagination; it does not hide the resulting automatic page boundaries. Check Print Preview afterward to confirm the result.

There is an important difference between automatic and manual breaks. Excel calculates automatic breaks from the current print setup, so changing paper size, margins, scaling, or the amount of content can move them. Manual breaks are user-set instructions and may remain even after other layout changes. If a break keeps appearing in the same inconvenient place, inspect the Page Layout > Breaks commands rather than repeatedly toggling the display setting.

What to check when the lines remain

If you cleared the checkbox but still see boundaries, first confirm that you changed the setting for the correct worksheet. In Display options for this worksheet, the drop-down identifies which sheet the checkbox applies to. Then select View > Normal; Page Break Preview is designed to show page divisions, so it can make the lines seem as if the display option had no effect.

Also distinguish page breaks from other marks. Gridlines form a regular pattern around cells, while borders are formatting applied to particular cells. A print area outline or a selection outline can also resemble a boundary, but neither is a page-break line. If the marks form a complete grid, check the View tab’s gridline display; if they trace selected cells, click an unused cell to clear the selection.

Finally, open File > Print if your real concern is the printed result. The worksheet display setting does not control the preview, and hiding a guide does not correct scaling or page setup. A page that appears blank or cut off in print preview needs a print-layout fix, not just a screen-display change.

Excel on Mac and Excel for the web

In Excel for Microsoft 365 on Mac, open Excel > Preferences (called Settings in some releases) > View and look for the page-break display option, then turn it off. The wording and organization can vary slightly with the Mac version. Use View > Normal if the sheet is in a page-break view. As on Windows, this display choice does not change the printed pagination.

Excel for the web does not provide the same Advanced options panel found in the Windows desktop app. If you cannot find a page-break display checkbox in the browser version, open the workbook in the desktop Excel app and use its worksheet display setting. The web app can still be useful for ordinary worksheet editing, but the desktop app offers the full set of page-layout and display controls described above.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I remove the dotted page lines in Excel?
On Windows, go to File > Options > Advanced, select the relevant worksheet under Display options for this worksheet, and clear Show page breaks. The dotted lines disappear from the worksheet display, but the print pagination remains unchanged.

Why do page break lines appear after I print?
Excel can display page boundaries after you open Print or Print Preview, so you can see how the worksheet is divided for printing. Turn off Show page breaks for that worksheet, or switch to View > Normal if you are in Page Break Preview.

Will hiding page breaks affect my printout?
No. The setting hides the on-screen guides; it does not alter page setup, manual breaks, or the pages Excel prints. Use File > Print to inspect the actual output.

How do I get rid of a page break that changes printing?
Use Page Layout > Breaks to remove the selected manual break or choose Reset All Page Breaks to clear manual adjustments on the worksheet. Then check Print Preview. Turning off Show page breaks only conceals the lines.

Can I hide page break lines on every worksheet at once?
The Windows option is tied to the worksheet selected in Display options for this worksheet. Check the setting for each sheet where you want the guides hidden; changing it for one sheet does not necessarily change it for the rest.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

More in How-to basics

Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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