How to set pivot table borders in Excel 2024

Question

How to set pivot table borders in Excel 2024

George Sinkinson 110

Not sure of the proper procedure, so I thought I'd take another shot at this. Some time ago I posted the following, but never found a solution:

I am trying to adjust a pivot table created in Excel 2024 to match a similar pivot table created in Excel 2021.

I've looked at a lot of clips but am still unable to figure out how to do it.

I would like to show the borders around each of the column groupings.

This the 2021 version: Pivot Table Borders 2019

This the 2024 version:
Pivot Table Borders 2024

Can you tell me how to do it, or point me to a really good 'How-To' tutorial?

I've tried opening the 2021 version in 2024, but the expand/collapse buttons behave in a weird fashion and wind up hiding all the rows.

2 answers

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Answer 1

Dear George Sinkinson

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A Forum. I understand how confusing the differences between Excel versions can be. Excel 2024 changed the default PivotTable style, but you can manually add borders. If you are using Windows, please try the following methods:

1> Go to the Design tab > Report Layout > Show in Tabular Form to check if this resolves the layout differences.

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2> Add Borders manually by selecting the entire PivotTable (or the specific area you want)> Go to Home > Borders and choose All Borders or More Borders for custom settings.

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3> Apply or create a PivotTable style in the Design tab, where you can select a recent style or create a new one that matches your preferred look.

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If you are on macOS, the steps are similar, but the interface may look slightly different. If you have any further questions or if this does not address your situation, please do not hesitate to contact.

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Gabriel-N 9,950 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-01T08:52:02.68+00:00

Dear George Sinkinson

Just writing to see how things are going with this issue.

Have you had a chance to check the replies provided?

Any update would be appreciated.
George Sinkinson 110 Reputation points

2025-10-01T18:19:44.3566667+00:00

In Gabriel-N's example, how do you manage to NOT draw lines around the cells where the block of lines for year 2015 shows?

Answer 2

George Sinkinson 110

Following Gabriel-N's suggestion, I get this:
Pivot Table Borders 2024_x

I want to avoid lines around each cell.

Gabriel-N 9,950 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-02T01:26:15.3033333+00:00
Hi George Sinkinson

Sorry for the late reply. If you want to avoid lines around each cell in the PivotTable, try these steps:

Right-click anywhere inside the PivotTable > Select PivotTable Options.

In the PivotTable Options tab, check Merge and center cells with labels > Click OK.

For more details, I selected Show in Tabular Form under Report Layout and applied the Light Turquoise, Pivot Style Medium 9 style from the Design tab.

Please give it a try and let me know if it works for you.
George Sinkinson 110 Reputation points

2025-10-02T02:22:07.2233333+00:00

Hello Gbriel

Your last suggestion 'almost' does the trick.

After the merge and center application,
I used Ctrl-A to select the entire table,
right-clicked and selected Format Cells ... ,
selected Alignment,
set Horizontal to Left (Indent),
set Vertical to Top

That comes very close to what I want but if you apply any filter to a column, it resets the alignments back to blank.

Reapplying the formatting after filtering Type to Income, I get:

That's just about right but note different border line weight in Group versus Category in rows 7-8.

Wish I didn't have to re-format when changing filters, but I guess I could create a VBA macro to handle that.

Thank you for getting me this far.

<<removed PII>>
Gabriel-N 9,950 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-02T03:36:13.3133333+00:00

Hello George Sinkinson

Thank you for the detailed feedback!

I noticed you used Format Cells for alignment, which definitely works, but I’m curious that did you try creating a new cell style as I suggested earlier? From my testing, applying a custom style might preserve the formatting even after filtering, which sounds like what you’re aiming for.

Also, if you want to fill color in the header row after modifying the borders, just select the header row > go to Format > in the Fill tab, choose your desired color, and in the Font tab, pick the text style you like. You can check the result in the Preview pane on the right before clicking OK.

One more tip: you might want to set this as the default PivotTable style so you don’t have to reapply it every time.

Could you give the custom style approach a try and let me know if it solves the issue? If not, we can explore other solutions together, there might still be a way to make this seamless without reformatting every time.

Looking forward to your feedback!
George Sinkinson 110 Reputation points

2025-10-02T22:10:13.1266667+00:00

Thank you so much for staying with this thread !
I'll try to take a run at this in the next few days.
Gabriel-N 9,950 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-06T14:56:07.0366667+00:00

Dear George Sinkinson

Just writing to see how things are going with this.

Any update would be appreciated.

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How to set pivot table borders in Excel 2024

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