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Excel Drawing a line

By Ashwani JaiswalAshwani Jaiswal

Drawing a line in excel

Drawing a line in Excel (Table of Contents)

  • Introduction to Drawing a line in Excel
  • How to use Drawing a line in Excel?
  • Purpose of Drawing a line in Excel

Introduction to Drawing a line in Excel

To draw a line, we have a command in Excel with the name Shapes in the Insert menu tab. If we go in Shapes drop-down list, see Lines. Line in Excel is used to connect any two cells, boxes, shapes or show to give directions as well. To draw a Line in Excel, select LINE from the Lines section in Shapes and then draw it anywhere on a sheet by holding the left click of the touchpad or mouse, then moving it along any direction we want, then leave the buttons to drop endpoint of the line.

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How to use Drawing a line in Excel?

The first thing to know before the drawing is where to find the line. Below are the generic steps that will lead your way:

You can download this Drawing a line in Excel Template here – Drawing a line in Excel Template

Step 1: Click on the “INSERT” Tab as highlighted in below image:

Drawing a line in excel step 1

Step 2: Under the “Insert” tab, you will find “Shapes”, which is a part of the “Illustrations” group

Drawing a line in excel step 2

Step 3: In “Shapes”, you will find a wide variety of lines from line to scribble that we will be used according to our requirement:

Drawing a line in excel step 3

Purpose of Drawing a line in Excel

Below are a few scenarios that you may come across.

Example #1 – Draw a simple line

Step 1: Select “Line” from the “Lines” menu.

Drawing a line in excel example 1

Step 2: Click anywhere in the document or the point from where you want to start, hold and drag your mouse pointer to a different location or the point where you want to end and then release.

Drawing a line in excel example 1.3

Step 3: In case you release the mouse cursor in between, you need not worry at all. Select the line, and you will see two dots at each end of the line as shown in below image:

Drawing a line in excel example 1.2

Step 4: Select the dot from any end to resize the line or to change its direction, and you will get the output as shown below:

Drawing a line in excel example 1.4

Example #2 – Draw multiple lines without selecting “line shape” again

After the first line, if you need to create another line of the same type, you have to select the line again from the “Shapes” menu. What if we need to draw multiple lines without selecting them back from the “Shapes” menu. To overcome this situation, Excel has an inbuilt functionality, i.e. “Lock Drawing Mode”. Below are the steps that you need to follow to draw multiple lines repeatedly.

Step 1: While selecting the type of line, right-click on the required type and select “Lock Drawing Mode” as shown below:

Drawing a line in excel example 2

Step 2: Click anywhere in the document or the point from where you want to start, hold and drag your mouse pointer to a different location or the point where you want to end and then release the mouse cursor.

Drawing a line in excel example 2.1

Step 3: Repeat “Step 2” for every line you need to draw. After you have drawn the number of required lines, Press the “Esc” button.

Drawing a line in excel example 2.2

Example #3 – Draw an arrow in a flow diagram

Imagine you need to create a flow diagram to explain the process or steps you follow for a certain project. In this situation, a simple line might not be useful as you need to specify the direction of the flow. We typically use “Line arrow” for such situations.

Below are the steps you need to take to draw it:

Step 1: Select “Line Arrow” from the “Lines” menu.

Drawing a line in excel example 3.1

Step 2: Click anywhere in the document or the point from where you want to start, hold and drag your mouse pointer to a different location or the point where you want to end and then release the mouse cursor.

Drawing a line in excel example 3.2

Example #4 – Format the line to make it more presentable

Sometimes we need to present our work to others in both the professional and personal world. One thing we should keep in mind is that we might have to make it look visually appealing according to the situation and all you need to do is follow the below set of steps:

Step 1: Select the line which you want to format.

Note: You can also select multiple lines to format them in the same manner in one go and avoid repeating the steps.

Drawing a line in excel example 2.4

Step 2: Select the “Format” tab under the “Drawing Tools” as highlighted below:

Drawing a line in excel example 4

Under the “Format tab”, you will have access to a lot of different options. You can change the color of the line or its width/thickness. You can even add some visual effects to it to make it more visually appealing.

To format Color:

Step 3: Now, select “Shape Outline” from the “Format tab” and choose the desired color for your line.

Drawing a line in excel example 4.2

To format Size:

Step 3: Now, select “Shape Outline” from the “Format tab” and choose “Weight” and then the required width.

Drawing a line in excel example 4.3

Drawing a line in excel example 4.4

Similarly, under the “Shapes Outline”, you will find “Dashes” and “Arrows”, which can be used to make the line dotted or to change the direction or type of arrows.

Drawing a line in excel example 4.5

Drawing a line in excel example 4.6

You can also use some pre-defined styles for a quick turnaround. They are available under the header “Shape Styles”, as shown below:

Drawing a line in excel example 4.7

To format Shape effects:

Step 3: To add shape effects, select “Shape Effects” from the “Format tab”, and you will see a wide variety of effects that can be used.

Drawing a line in excel example 4.8

Let us take an example of adding shadow to the line and see it looks like:

Step 4: Select “Shadow” from the “Shape Effects” menu as shown below:

Drawing a line in excel example 4.9

Step 5: Select the required effect from the “Shadow” menu, and you will see an output similar to the one shown below:

Drawing a line in excel example 4.10

Things to Remember

This was an overview of drawing a line in excel and some of its applications. To draw other shapes and format them, all you need to do is select the required shape from the “Shapes” menu and follow the steps we used above to draw a line in excel. You make things look simple; the method of drawing a line in excel will be more helpful.

Some popular types of lines.

  • Line
  • Line Arrow
  • Line Arrow: Double
  • Connector: Elbow Arrow
  • Connector: Elbow Double-Arrow

Some other applications.

  • Used in charts to mark threshold values or as stat markers
  • Used as dividers to segregate the spreadsheet into two or multiple regions.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Drawing a line in Excel. Here we discuss Drawing a line in Excel and how to use Drawing a line in Excel along with practical examples and a downloadable excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles –

  1. Data Table in Excel
  2. Combo Box in Excel
  3. Bubble Chart in Excel
  4. Scrollbar in Excel
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