How To Create An Invisible Table In Word

Many people prefer invisible tables in their Word documents due to various reasons. They’re great for organizing text and data by providing a more transparent overview of the table content. But you may want to remove the table’s borders to provide a cleaner look. However, you must see the gridline to navigate through cells and columns.

But as the world’s most popular word processor, Microsoft Word gives you an outstanding level of table customization. So whatever the reason you need to create a borderless grid, Word allows you to do this easily. Here are a few common ways to create and customize a borderless “invisible” table.

Table Tools

Microsoft Word features excellent options for creating and customizing tables. Breaking up text and figures into rows and columns is incredibly simple using the commands provided in the toolbar. There are few restrictions to Word’s table creator, including making changes to the preferred border settings.

The Table Tools tab in Word’s toolbar offers many options for managing borders and lines. You can adjust the table borders’ visibility and customize the table according to your needs.

Remove All Borders

The easiest way to create a completely invisible table is to remove all borders from a table or cells. Doing this will make table borders transparent, leaving only the content fully visible. However, you’ll still be able to see the table grid, so you’ll navigate the cells as easily as before.

Here are the steps to creating an invisible table using this method.

1. Go to the “Insert” card in the Word toolbar.
   
2. Select “Table.”
   
3. Move the cursor over the grid to select the number of rows and columns you want in the table. If you want to create a large table, select “Insert Table” from the drop-down menu, then customize the number of rows and columns.
   
4. Once you have created the table, click the anchor in the upper left corner of the table until you have selected the whole table.
   
5. Go to the “Table Tools” tab from the main toolbar.
   
6. Click the arrow next to “Borders.”
   
7. Select “No Border” from the drop-down menu. All borders from the table will be removed.
   

Following these steps should hide the borders in the entire table. You can also hide only specific border lines from the table. Here is how to do that:

1. Place the cursor inside the table.
   
2. Select the cells whose borders you want to erase.
   
3. Go to “Table Tools.”
   
4. Select the “Home” tab.
   
5. Click the arrow next to “Borders” and choose “No borders.”
   
6. The borders from the selected columns will be erased.

You can apply the same method to as many tables and columns.

Borders and Shading

You can add or remove borders by using the “Format Table” option. This option opens a dialog box where you can manually add, remove, and edit table borders according to your needs. Follow these steps to remove the line borders from a table.

1. Select the whole table.
   
2. Right-click on the selection and select “Borders and Shading.”
   
3. A dialogue box will open. Select the “Borders” tab.
   
4. On the left side of the window, under “Setting,” select “None.”
   
5. Click OK to save the settings.
   

The table’s borders will be invisible. You’ll still be able to see the gridlines if you have turned them on. You can apply the same steps to erase specific column borders.

Turning Gridlines Off and On

When creating borderless tables, you still need to be able to navigate through the columns and rows. If you need to print your document and want a borderless table, it’s a good idea to enable the gridline view. Table borders print, but gridlines don’t, which makes them a valuable tool for editing the document without borders.

If you’re seeing light-colored dashed lines, the “View Gridlines” feature is on. This option allows you to see the structure of the table. However, you can remove the gridlines if you want. Here is how to do this.

1. Place your cursor inside the table.
   
2. Go to “Table Tools.”
   
3. Select “Home.”
   
4. Click the arrow next to “Borders” and choose “View Gridlines” button.
   
5. The gridlines will be hidden from the display.

If you need to view the gridlines again, click on the “View Gridlines” button to make them appear again. Gridlines will stay on for all Word documents.

Making Your Table Transparent

Creating invisible tables in Word is the way to go for many users. Their simple look is one of the best ways to highlight table content without creating an extra design element. Word makes borders reasonably easy to delete, and you can use any of these methods described in this article to make a clean-looking table anytime.

What’s your preferred way to create invisible tables in Word? Leave your answer in the comment section below.