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Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2010 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

Can't see borders around table cells on your screen, even though they print?

Can't see white text on a black or colored background in a table?

Margin lines missing on a page or a label?

Perhaps you have turned table gridlines "on" or turned table guidelines "off." Here is some information about table gridlines, table guidelines, and cell borders - what they do and how they work.

[Also note that sometimes these issues are not due to a WordPerfect setting: they might be caused by some flat screen (LCD) monitors and Windows settings. See the Notes and Tips below for some solutions.]

There often is some confusion concerning the distinction between table gridlines and table borders (not to mention table guidelines), what they do, and how they work.

The problem stems from the fact that table gridlines, table borders, and table guidelines occupy the same locations in a table. They overlay the same "screen real estate," and they can affect one another in opposite ways.

Table gridlines are faint gray (grey) dotted lines on your screen around the borders of a table and its cells. They can be toggled on and off with Tools, Settings, Display, Document, Show Table Gridlines -- or, more easily in later versions of WordPerfect, with View, Table Gridlines. (A check mark will appear in the View menu if Table Gridlines is turned ON.)

They are available to help you see the table's structure on the screen, so you know where to insert material in specific cells and guide you in formatting row and column sizes, etc. They never print. They are similar to the faint gray page margin lines in this respect (page margins do not print, they just show onscreen). They occupy the same position as table borders and table guidelines.

Here's what WordPerfect 9's Help (F1) file says about table gridlines:

"Table gridlines are dimmed, dotted lines that replace [visible] lines and fill in a table. Table gridlines speed up the display of a document that contains many tables or heavily formatted tables. However, tables print with the lines and fill styles you have selected. You can choose to always display table gridlines."

However, these days with fast and powerful computers with lots of memory (RAM), there's probably little need for gridlines, which were designed to be helpful as described above. But: Table gridlines -- if ON -- help you see the structure of table cells in the event that table/cell borders are OFF and table guidelines are also OFF. (See next sections.)

Tip: You can add a "toggle" button to a toolbar to turn table gridlines on and off; see here for help creating toolbar buttons (the button is under the "View" feature category in the Toolbar Editor, listed as "Table Gridlines"). Toggling also lets you see any "fills" such as reversed backgrounds, where the background is black or some dark color and the text is white or lightly colored.

Table borders and individual cell lines can be toggled on/off by right-clicking inside the table and selecting Borders/Fill. They print if they are toggled on (which is the default for cell lines; to change default borders and cell line settings, set them to your preferences and use the Default Settings button under the Table tab).

Unfortunately, you can see only one or the other, gridlines or borders/cell lines, on screen at the same time.

Gridlines (or guidelines, below) will not impact the printing of table borders or cell lines, if table borders/lines are ON. Gridlines only impact what is on screen. If table gridlines are ON -- which is sometimes the case depending on the setting in Tools, Settings, Display, Document tab -- you can't see table borders or cell lines (assuming they are ON).

Gridline display takes precedence over table border or cell line display. You have to toggle gridlines OFF (by un-selecting View, Table Gridlines) so that you can see the table borders or cell lines onscreen the way they will print.

Tip: You can add a "toggle" button to a toolbar to turn table gridlines on and off; see here for help creating toolbar buttons (the button is under the "View" feature category in the Toolbar Editor, listed as "Table Gridlines"). Toggling also lets you see any "fills" such as reversed backgrounds, where the background is black or some dark color and the text is white or lightly colored.

Table guidelines are also faint gray dotted lines on your screen around the borders of a table and its cells. They never print. In general, you should leave guidelines for tables turned ON (check View, Guidelines, Tables, OK), because if you remove all border lines and fills from a table and also have gridlines turned OFF, you won't be able to see the table's cell boundaries on your screen!

Note that guidelines are also available for margins, columns, and headers/footers. Some prefer those particular items ON, some prefer them OFF. But as noted, most users will probably want to leave table guidelines ON all the time, since they will not obscure table borders or cell lines and are very useful when table borders or gridlines are turned OFF. [See also the Notes below about certain issues with LCD monitors.]

WordPerfect 9's Help (F1) also says this about guidelines:

"You can move guidelines in your document to reposition tables, margins, columns, headers, and footers. Guidelines must be visible in your document to move them."

Notes and Tips

• If you find that you often accidentally drag the left margin guideline slightly out of position when you are trying to select text at that location by clicking your left mouse button next to the margin, you can remove this annoyance by clicking on View, Guidelines. Then uncheck "Drag to move guidelines." Of course, you will now have to set margins from the Format menu, not by dragging them.
• On some monitors, particularly LCD monitors, an incorrect screen resolution can cause such faint lines to fall between pixels and not appear on screen. Please ensure that the monitor is set to its preferred resolution, both vertical and horizontal. Otherwise gridlines, guidelines, and even text underlines can "fall between the cracks."
• If lines, borders, or underlines do not appear on screen but appear in a printout, try setting your monitor's Zoom to a slightly different setting with View, Zoom or by holding down the <Ctrl> key while you rotate your mouse wheel.
• If you have the View turned to Draft mode, guidelines won't display on some monitors (but gridlines will). Try using Page mode.
• If label and margin gridlines or guidelines don't display properly on the screen, it could be a problem with Windows and flatscreen (e.g., LCD) monitors. From Corel's support database (Answer ID 207679):
  • Modifying the Windows Classic style in the Display Properties to a darker shade of gray will resolve this issue.
    • Tip: Select just a small amount of darker gray or you might not be able to see toolbar labels.
  • For Windows XP:
  • 1. Right click on the Desktop, select Properties.
    2. Select the Appearance tab.
    3. Click the Advanced button.
    4. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown
    5. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
    6. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
    7. Click OK, launch WordPerfect.
  • The grid lines should be more visible, the darker the shade of gray you select the more visible the gridlines will be.
  • For Windows Vista:
  • 1. Right click on the Desktop, select Personalize
    2. Click on Window Color Appearance
    3. Click on Open Classic Appearance
    4. Click the Advance button
    5. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown
    6. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
    7. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
    8. Click OK, launch WordPerfect.
  • The grid lines should be more visible, the darker the shade of gray you select the more visible the gridlines will be.
  • For Windows 7:
  • 1. Right click on the Desktop, select Personalize
    2. Click on Window Color
    3. Click on Advanced appearance settings
    4. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown
    5. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray (or click Other and choose a RGB value of (for example) from the default of 240,240,240 to 230,230,230).
    6. Click OK, then click Apply on the Window Color and Appearance tab.
    7. Click OK, launch WordPerfect.
  • The grid lines should be more visible, the darker the shade of gray you select the more visible the gridlines will be.