Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Understanding Underlines.

Understanding Underlines

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 11, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


There are several different types of underlines you can use in Excel. Underlining of information within cells is handled by choosing Cells from the Format menu, whereupon the Format Cells dialog box is displayed; you should make sure the Font tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Font tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

In the Underline box, in the lower-left corner, you can select any of five different underline types.

Underline Type Meaning
None Removes any underlining from the cell contents.
Single Adds a single underline, the entire width of the cell contents.
Double Adds a double-line underline, the entire width of the cell contents.
Single Accounting Same as the Single underline, except it is moved downward just a bit.
Double Accounting Same as the Double underline, except it is moved downward just a bit.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2508) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Understanding Underlines.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Discovering Printer Drift

How accurate is your printer when it comes to placing information on the printed page? The simple technique described in ...

Discover More

Hiding Table Gridlines, by Default

The edges to table cells are shown two ways in Word: gridlines and borders. Table gridlines are only seen in Word; they ...

Discover More

Applying Styles

Styles are a powerful formatting tool for the text in your documents. Once you've created styles that describe how you ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Getting Rid of Leading Zeros in a Number Format

Excel, by default, displays numbers with a leading zero, if they are less than 1. Here's how you can get rid of those ...

Discover More

Better Use of Heading Space

If your column headings are too large to work well in your worksheet, why not turn them a bit? Here's how.

Discover More

Setting Horizontal Alignment

You can horizontally align the information in a cell in any of eight different ways. This tip explains not only how to do ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 + 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.