Thanks for the solutions here, but it's a PITA to do this. I've noticed this since first stated using Excel in MSO 3.1 but never really sought how to do it. VERY surprised MS doesn't have a box under "FORMAT/PATTERNS/Pattern:" (with all the dots, horiz/vert/diag lines, crosshatch, diagonal crosshatch dots, etc that I've used maybe on three sheets over 25 years) that simply says GRID.

I used the solution of highlighting then border all cells with "first border under NONE" for stored/emailed spreadsheets, and will used contributor's color formula if I ever need a good printed document.