What is Grid Wipe?

Grid Wipe is an application to remove the grid lines from spreadsheets created in Google Docs. Manually added grid lines will remain intact. Here's an example:

How do I use Grid Wipe?

In order for Grid Wipe to be able to fetch your spreadsheet, you need to publish it. Open your spreadsheet, press the "Share" button, and select "Publish as a web page".

Now, a dialog appears enabling you to customize some publishing options. Select the "Start publishing" button. Notice the link address at the near bottom of the dialog, this is the text that you need to copy to Grid Wipe's input field.

Simply paste the link address into Grid Wipe's text field and press "Go!".

Wait a moment, and you should be presented with a PDF without the unwanted grid lines!

How does Grid Wipe work?

The link address entered by the user points to a PDF file exported by Google Docs. This file is fetched over Internet and analyzed, processed and converted to another PDF file without the annoying gray grid lines. One can think of Grid Wipe as a filter that the PDF file flows through to remove grid lines.

You are not storing my spreadsheets, are you?

We are not collecting any information passed through this service. Once the PDF file has been converted into a gridless one, it's immediately forgotten. Neither the link address (URL) or the spreadsheet is stored in any way.

Why did you create this application?

We were just as annoyed as you are about the fact that Google Docs cannot export professional looking spreadsheets. This was the major issue for us to use Google Docs for some of our simpler documents. I started looking at the possibility of removing the grid lines in exported PDF's, and soon this service was running. (I also was a bit curious about using App Engine, so this project was also a way to learn some new technology. :-)