How to Strikethrough on Google Sheets: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
Learn how to apply strikethrough in Google Sheets using menus and shortcuts, with practical tips for tracking tasks, scenes for templates, and best practices for clean, readable spreadsheets.
What strikethrough does in Google Sheets and when to use it
Text with a line through it serves as a visual cue that an item is completed, canceled, or not applicable, while leaving the underlying data intact. In Google Sheets, strikethrough is a formatting option rather than a data change, making it ideal for to‑do lists, project trackers, and budgets where you want to preserve history without deleting values. According to How To Sheets, the best practice is to apply strikethrough consistently across related cells so readers aren’t misled by other formatting choices. It can be applied to any text cell and does not alter the data; it only changes appearance. When you combine strikethrough with other formatting (color, borders, or conditional rules), you can build clean dashboards that reflect status in real time. Use sparingly and deliberately to maintain readability and avoid visual clutter. This section helps you decide when to apply strikethrough and how to maintain a professional look across your sheets.
