What Are the Black Dots For On Excel Worksheet?

[Cyberdude]

This is a “who cares” question that’s been bothering me ever since I started using Excel 2007. Every time I start drawing straight lines using the “line drawing” tool, Excel likes to scatter black dots around on my worksheet in unpredictable patterns that looks like the intersection points of a grid. I have the grid suppressed, so I don’t think it has anything to do with that. No lines are drawn to connect the dots. Actually they are pretty easy to erase except they get scattered around in various places and quantities and are a nuisance to delete. Curiously, the number of dots shown can be as few as one or as many as it takes to fill up most of the worksheet. Or I might see a few here and a few there for no obvious purpose.

What is the purpose of the dots and how can I suppress them?
Sid

[Aussiebear]

Been using 2007 for some time and yet to have this happen. Might be a simple case of "Measels Excelitis", which can be solved by a visit to the Doc.....

[Bob Phillips]

I haven't seen it either. I presume that you mean Insert>Shapes>Line?

[Cyberdude]

I’m not sure what you call the process, but what I do is make use of two items on the QAD. One is labeled “Line Color” and the other is labeled “Line Style”.
The ultimate effect is the same as inserting one or more lines on one side of a cell. There are other ways of doing it that you may prefer, but I’ve gotten in the habit of doing what I explained mostly because I don’t have to search for the needed “insert” icon for what I want to do. I’m not trying to justify my method. I would just like to avoid the black dots. Note that the placement of the dots seem to have no connection with where I’m inserting a line. They can show up on the other side of the page from where I’m applying the “line color” tool’s pointer.

PS: I forgot to mention that the dots don't seem to be permanent. The next time I open the workbook, it's clean until I start using the "Line Color" tool, then they start popping up. When I start to do something, many dots just go away without me doing anything. Weird.

[ppa1001]

This is a “who cares” question that’s been bothering me ever since I started using Excel 2007. Every time I start drawing straight lines using the “line drawing” tool, Excel likes to scatter black dots around on my worksheet in unpredictable patterns that looks like the intersection points of a grid. I have the grid suppressed, so I don’t think it has anything to do with that. No lines are drawn to connect the dots. Actually they are pretty easy to erase except they get scattered around in various places and quantities and are a nuisance to delete. Curiously, the number of dots shown can be as few as one or as many as it takes to fill up most of the worksheet. Or I might see a few here and a few there for no obvious purpose.

What is the purpose of the dots and how can I suppress them?
Sid

[ppa1001]

Try highlighting those columns and or rows where the dots appear and change the cell style to normal.

[Paul_Hossler]

Graphics driver problem maybe? Update to the lastest driver and see

1. Can you make a screen shot?

2. Just be certain, what are you calling the 'line drawing tool'?

Paul

[Aflatoon]

Sounds like the draw borders option. If you have the worksheet set not to show gridlines, then the dots appear as a guide for where the cell boundaries are.

[Kjava]

This is a “who cares” question that’s been bothering me ever since I started using Excel 2007. Every time I start drawing straight lines using the “line drawing” tool, Excel likes to scatter black dots around on my worksheet in unpredictable patterns that looks like the intersection points of a grid. I have the grid suppressed, so I don’t think it has anything to do with that. No lines are drawn to connect the dots. Actually they are pretty easy to erase except they get scattered around in various places and quantities and are a nuisance to delete. Curiously, the number of dots shown can be as few as one or as many as it takes to fill up most of the worksheet. Or I might see a few here and a few there for no obvious purpose.

What is the purpose of the dots and how can I suppress them?
Sid

I have the same problem with tiny dots on Excel. Between that and the frequent ghost cmd windows, I'm almost ready to switch to Google spreadsheet. I have a student version of MS Office, not Office 365. For the cmd windows, isn't there a way to make the cmd windows be hidden if a .bat script is running? For the tiny dots I'd really like to get rid of them. Sometimes when I open the .xlsx it says it must repair by deleting a line drawing, but my .xlsx is pure text and a few numbers. It should not have any drawings.

One more complaint, when I accidentally double-click and it moves the cursor to the top of the page or somewhere, is there a way I can easily get back to where I was?