Changing the Color of a Cell Border

You probably already know that Excel allows you to add borders to your cells. This is handy for separating different pieces of information within the same data table and for, well, just making your data look better.

You are not limited to black borders, however. You can specify different colors for your borders by following these steps if you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Select the cells whose border colors you want to change.
2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. Word displays the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Make sure the Border tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Using the Color drop-down list, specify a color you want to use for borders.
5. Using the controls in the dialog box, specify the borders for the cell as you normally would.
6. Click on OK.

If you are using Excel 2007, then the steps are slightly different:

1. Select the cells whose border colors you want to change.
2. Make sure the Home tab of the ribbon is displayed.
3. In the Font group, click the down-arrow next to the Borders tool. You'll see a list of borders you can apply to the cell.
4. Click the More Borders option at the bottom of the list. Excel displays the Borders tab of the Format Cells dialog box.
5. Using the Color drop-down list, specify a color you want to use for borders.
6. Using the controls in the dialog box, specify the borders for the cell as you normally would.
7. Click on OK.

Just as you can specify a different border type for each side of a cell, you can also specify a different border color for each side of the cell. Just make sure you pick the color you want used before you click on the side of the cell where you want that color used.