Lines across characters in the sheet in my Excel 365

Most of the common solutions have already been tried, as I have used excel for years.

This is something I have never encountered

Hi, Ben N

If the lines are showing mainly on formula cells, this is usually Excel marking them as “stale” values, not damaged text. It happens when the workbook is in Manual or Partial calculation mode and the formulas haven’t fully recalculated yet.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Press F9 once, or use Formulas > Calculate Now. That forces Excel to recalculate the sheet, and stale cells should lose the line once the values are updated.

Check Formulas > Calculation Options and set it to Automatic instead of Manual or Partial. This helps stop Excel from leaving formula results in that crossed-out state after edits.

If it only happens in one sheet or one area, check for Conditional Formatting or a custom Cell Style. Similar lines can also come from formatting rules in the workbook, not from Excel itself.

If the lines also appear on normal typed text in every workbook, then it may be a display/rendering issue rather than a sheet setting. Hope this helps. Feel free to get back if you need further assistance.

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