Show or hide drawing gridlines

Drawing gridlines are the thin lines that appear on your on-screen document in Print Layout view. Gridlines do not print when you print a document.What do you want to do?

Show or hide drawing gridlines

Change the spacing between the drawing gridlines

Change the starting point for gridlines

Show or hide drawing gridlines

Drawing gridlines appear only in Print Layout view.

• On the View tab, in the Show/Hide group, select the Gridlines check box.

You can change the spacing between gridlines and the starting point for gridlines. To temporarily override grid settings, press ALT as you drag or draw an object.

Change the spacing between the drawing gridlines

To change the spacing between drawing gridlines, you must first insert a shape in your document.

1. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes, and then click a shape.

   

2. Click in the document.
3. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Arrange group, click Align, and then click Grid Settings.

   

4. In the Drawing Grid dialog box, do either of the following:
   • Under Grid settings, in the Horizontal Spacing and Vertical Spacing boxes, enter the spacing you want between the horizontal or vertical drawing gridlines.
   • Under Show grid, select the Display gridlines on screen check box, and then enter how many horizontal or vertical gridlines that you want to view. For example, if you want to view only every fourth gridline, enter 4.

Change the starting point for gridlines

Initially, the grid begins at the upper-left corner of the page.

Note Word displays gridlines only within the margins of the page, even though the grid may extend beyond the margins. To view the gridlines beyond the margins of the document, use this procedure.

1. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes, and then click a shape.

   

2. Click in the document.
3. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Arrange group, click Align, and then click Grid Settings.

   

4. In the Drawing Grid dialog box, clear the Use margins check box if it is selected.
5. In the Horizontal origin and the Vertical origin boxes, enter the location where you want vertical and horizontal gridlines to begin, relative to the left and top edges of the page.