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: Rounded Corners on Cells.

Rounded Corners on Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Kartik wonders how he can get rounded borders on cells in Excel. The short answer is that you cannot; Excel allows you to place square-cornered borders, but not rounded-corner borders.

The only possible workaround is to create a drawing object that is a rectangle with rounded corners. If you make the drawing object the same size as your cells and format it so it has no fill color, you could copy the object to as many cells as you want to have the border. Remember, however, that this is just a workaround—if you change the size of the cell in which one of these drawing objects is located, the "border" won't resize with the cell; it will remain small.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6749) 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: Rounded Corners on Cells.

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. ...

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