I use Excel to view a "snapshot" of my business. Each column has a heading that describes the sequence of the sales process that my clients are in. For example, before I call the client for the first time, his/her name is in a cell beneath the column heading "To Call". After I've called the person, I'll drag and drop his/her cell to another column "prepare proposal," and so on.



If I drag and drop a cell that was in one of the columns furthest on the left or furthest on the right of my table to another column, the outside border that wasn't touching another cell disappears. So if for example, I drag & drop a cell that was in column A to another location on the sheet, the left-side vertical border outline disappears on the spreadsheet. It's simple to go back to the cell that I dragged the data from, format it and reinsert the outer outlineborder to the table. But it's also extra steps that I hope are avoidable.

How can I drag & drop cells on from the columns of my table that are furthest to the left or right to another location and save the outside outline borders of the table at the same time?

Hi
I tried to reproduce your problem, but all borders stayed as they should, none disappeared.
Perhaps post a sample sheet so we can have a look ?

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Thanks for your effort, Pecoflyer. I've attached a Before (left) and After (right) Shot to illustrate what I'm describing. In the attached examples, When I dragged & dropped cell I-4 (E. Stein) to H-3, the outline border on the right side of I-4 disappeared.

I want to set up this table so that the border outlines don't disappear regardless of which cells I drag and drop. I appreciate any advice that you can offer me.

Attached Images

	Before.jpg (153.3 KB, 9 views)
	After.jpg (153.9 KB, 10 views)

Not sure what version of Excel you have but it's always had problems dragging or cutting, which I'm guessing it's doing in the background when you drag, from the outside of a range of cells with borders to somewhere else.
It seems to get it's right edge formatting from the cell to the right for some odd reason, likewise top and bottom.

One fix, probably not pretty but it works, is to add a column to the left of the table and one to the right and format it like your data cells.

Then dragging from the Left & Right edges doesn't change borders. If you ever drag from the bottom or the top do the same.

See the Attachments. I made Column A & G .42 cm so you can see what I did. Can make it smaller but it plays up with mouse control. Can't hide them either as then Excel ignores the formatting in the hidden column.

Dragging F6 to E7 leaves F6 with a border

Attached Images

	before.png (3.8 KB, 8 views)
	after.png (4.2 KB, 7 views)

I should've stated that I'm using MS Office 2010. Boy, you'd think that there'd be a way to solve this problem where I wouldn't have to add narrow columns on the left and right sides of the table. But you're the first person that's come up with any solution yet. I just tried your work-around and it did the trick on the column furthest to the right, but it didn't work on the column furthest to the left. Go figure.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question, Steve.


Robert

Please post a sheet not a pic - Thx

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OK Pecoflyer; I've attached an actual sheet created in MS Office 2010.

When I dragged & dropped cell I-4 (E. Stein) to H-3, the outline border on the right side of I-4 disappeared.

Thanks for hangin' in there with me.

Attached Files

Action Sheet__Sample sent to OfficeForum_2013_1210.xls (39.0 KB, 9 views)

Ok, I got it.

In your example select col J ( the first one after your table) - Right Click - Format Cells - Border and add a left border in the border " zone" ( or whatever it's called)
Now you can drag any cell from col I without loosing the right border ( which is actually col J's left border)

Apply an equivalent technique if your first column is not col A.

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Unfortunately I've moved on to Office 2013, 1998 if you ask me they've moved it backwards so far but it used to work as far back as 2003.

How frustrating! I followed your directions Pecoflyer and it worked great the first time. Then I tried it a second time and I couldn't duplicate what worked on the first go at it. I'm surprised that what seems like such a simple task is so difficult to execute.

I wonder if setting up a template would keep the border outlines permanent.
If I can't get this process down pat, I may have to go "nuclear" and set up a template.....

Thanks to you Pecoflyer and to you SteveWcg, for your help.

Robert