How to underline in Google Sheets

The underline feature in Google Sheets enhances your document’s readability and comprehension. Underlining can emphasize the headers, highlight a particular data, or differentiate any specific cells from the others. This article provides a detailed step-by-step process on how to underline in Google Sheets.

How to underline in Google Sheets

To underline text, follow these steps:

1. Open Your Google Sheets Document: Open the Google Sheets document you want to underline text in.
2. Select the Cell or Text: Click on the specific cell that contains the text you wish to underline. If you wish to underline a specific portion of the text within a particular cell, double-click the cell to edit, and then select the text you want to underline.
3. Apply Underline: With the text selected, click on the Format menu –> then Choose the Underline option. See the below screenshot.

You’ll see the text you have selected is now underlined successfully.

That’s it! You’ve successfully underlined text in Google Sheets.

Underlining A Text Using Keyboard Shortcuts

For underlining, Select the desired cell or text and then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U (for Windows or Linux) or Command+U (for MacOS).

Underlining Entire Columns and Rows

When dealing with large datasets, you might wish to underline a row/column in Google Sheets. The process is just as straightforward.

1. Select the Row or Column: Click the header of the row or column you want to underline. This action will select all the cells in that row or column.
2. Apply Underline: Click on the Format menu –> then Choose the Underline option or you can use the keyboard shortcuts as mentioned above. All the text in the selected row or column will now be underlined.

Conditional Formatting for Underlining

Google Sheets also allows users to underline text based on certain conditions that you can apply, a feature called conditional formatting. This allows underlining to be automatically applied when data in a cell meets certain criteria.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Select the Cells: Select the cells where you want the conditional formatting to apply.
2. Open Conditional Formatting: Navigate to Format menu > Select Conditional formatting option. See the below screenshot.

3. Set the Condition: In the sidebar, under ‘Format cells if’, set your desired condition. You can format cells based on their content, whether they are empty or not, etc. Check out the below screenshot.

4. Apply Underline: In the ‘Formatting style’ section, click on the “U” button to set Underline as the format. Click on the ‘Done’ button to apply the format. Now, every time a cell meets your set condition, the text will automatically be underlined.

FAQs

1. How can I underline text in Google Sheets?
   • Select the cell or range of cells that you wish to underline.
   • Navigate to Format from the top menu, then, then click Underline.
2. How can I underline a whole row in Google Sheets?
   • Click on the row number to select the whole row.
   • Go to Format menu > select Text > Choose Underline to underline all the text in that row.
3. Can I only underline specific words in a cell in Google Sheets?
   • Yes. Double-click the cell to start editing it.
   • Highlight the particular text you wish to underline.
   • Go to Format menu > select Text > choose Underline.
4. Can I underline text in multiple cells at once in Google Sheets?
   • Yes. Click and drag to select the complete range of cells you wish to underline.
   • Then navigate to Format menu > select Text > choose Underline.
5. How to remove underline in Google Sheets

Conclusion

Whether you’re working with a small data set or a large spreadsheet, knowing how to underline in Google Sheets can prove invaluable. It’s a simple but effective way to emphasize important information or make certain elements of your data stand out.